Witches, witches everywhere 3 !
by israelhusky
Summary: The third book of the saga, the conclusion and the answer to the question: Can a witch break her contract with the devil? A small woodland ranger from Normandy is willing to pay the price to find it out.
1. Chapter 1 - Norse call

**Chapter 1 – Norse call**

Chip Maplewood was left with no choice but to turn around and fight.

At his back was no more ground to escape or forest to hide, only a steep cliff and a long fall toward a nest of sharp rocks and the unmerciful current of the river Sienne.

The small ranger shifted his stance to a guard and took a deep breath in, a pair of longswords with dark purple blades firmly gripped in his paws, a juniper longbow dropped at his feet.

In front of him, a squad of three mice musketeers clad in black and white uniforms held their spears forward. However, as Chip soon noticed, one of them was blinking a bit too often, other had a case of shaking knees, and the last one was sweating cold, and not precisely from the frenetic pursuit that had finally come to an end in that solitary cliff, with a red setting sun as witness of the impending clash of weapons.

A whistle was heard on the distance, followed by a loud call. "Artus! Fabrice!... Ceasar!? Where are you, guys?"

One of the musketeers turned around, answered with another whistle, and waved his paws frantically. "Colombe, Over here, quickly! We've got him!"

Chip didn't dare to make a move, instead frowned as he spotted yet another musketeer, this one a gerbil, coming out from the forest's borders. The newcomer was carrying a huge crossbow in his arms. "Ugh" The chipmunk thought to himself. "How did I ended up in this situation?"

Then, from the depths of his mind, an otherworldly voice spoke. "Want me to remind you again of your hero complex?"

"Shut up Munnin" Chip muttered not so quietly, which in turn made the soldiers frown confused. "You are not helping" He added more subtly.

Colombe, the crossbow officer, ran uphill as fast as he could. "Caesar!" He yelled at his comrade from afar. "Why is he not dead yet!" "What are you waiting for?"

"But..." The musketeer stuttered, a bit afraid to look back at Chip. "He is the one who murdered Julien's entire squad! Where are our reinforcements?"

"You idiot!" The gerbil scolded him as he pushed him aside and aimed the crossbow at the disgraced ranger. "It was the blonde witch who murdered them! This chipmunk is just one of her servants. The four of us can take him down!"

Without further warning, he shot a bolt right at the ranger's heart.

One day ago, even one night ago, Chip Maplewood would have been killed from a shot at such close distance... but today, he swung his blades and deflected the bolt away in a movement so fast that left his enemies blinking speechless, unable to process the flashing motion or the reason behind the traces of purple feathers that steamed out from the ranger's blades.

"C-charge! Kill this demon!" The daunted musketeers finally ordered at each other.

"Here we go" Said Chip under his breath as he dug in his heels on the ground and got ready to defend himself.

"Roll for initiative!" The raven called Munnin shouted inside the Chipmunk's mind.

"What does that even mean!?" The annoyed host asked loudly, much to his opponent's befuddlement, as he met the first of the thrusting spears with a circling parry.

One day ago, one fateful night ago...

Chip went outside the ruins that were giving shelter to him and his friends, haunted by the hopeless words of the witch Gadget and her decision to honor the deal she had made with the demon called Mephisto up to the bitter end. But the ranger wouldn't have any of that, even if the witch herself had given up and resigned to her fate. Somehow, somewhere, there should be a way to break a contract with such a supernatural creature, and he was determined to find it!

To save a helpless victim from harm is an action expected from a woodland's ranger. It's almost written in stone. But there was something else that steeled the chipmunk's resolve and made him undertake that quest. He had finally accepted he was in love with Gadget. In love with that witch of blonde hair and blue eyes he had just met two nights ago. In love with that fountain of charm and kindness that comforted him at the doors of an excruciating and burning death. Now it was his heart the one burning with the will to save her from that wish merchant from hell.

Indeed, the vivid image of him releasing her from the chains and shackles of her infernal contract gave the hero the necessary strength to step forward and face his greatest fear: That the shady being in front of him could be nothing else but a figment of his broken imagination.

Because in front of Chip, barely illuminated by the moonlight, was the former god of Normandy. In a way, he seemed older than the chipmunk remembered. Shriveled, faded, leaning heavily and tiredly on his wooden staff. Struggling to to greet the chipmunk even with a slight bow of head. "Chip Maplewood..."

The small ranger looked up at him but answered nothing. The quick breaths and thumbing chest giving away hints of an internal struggle. The ancient viking god was familiar with these reactions, and hoped this tiny mortal had enough presence of mind to come to grips with the fact that other gods, besides the christian one, still lingered in this world. If barely.

Some tense moments later, Chip finally addressed the god in front of him. "We've talked before, didn't we? You, me... your ravens... two years ago, when I fell unconscious during a storm"

"You are correct" The one-eyed god nodded solemnly, and his body seemed to materialize further in consequence. "It was indeed me the one you talked to. Huggin and Munnin were there as well"

Chip's head reeled with that declaration. "All this time... I was sure I had some sort of dementia, that any given day I would be sent away to an asylum, embarrassing my friends and family. But it was really you... it was real. I'm sane!"

Odin chuckled amused, his whole figure now clearly defined. "Of course! If only, you are too skeptic for your own good"

"And... you helped us yesterday, didn't you? You gave Dale magical powers to help us defeat Gadget's sister!"

The raven on Odin's left shoulder, Huggin, replied with a raspy voice. "Your companion is no mage at all"

The second raven, Munnin, finished the sentence in a squeakier tone. "But we've know of his family's enchanted lute from centuries ago"

Chip almost couldn't believe it. _"_ _Enchanted lute!?"_ But then again, that would explain his friend's antics... most of them, anyway.

"All I did" The wanderer spoke again, causing his ravens to bow in solemn reverence. "Was to give Dale Oakmont a gentle push forward into the battle" A grin appeared on his wrinkled face. "Never underestimate the power of a bard, since the right song at the right time can turn the tide of a battle on your favor"

Somewhat relieved that Dale's involvement in the magic arts was merely circumstantial, Chip was now ready to ask the big question. "You know why I'm here... I need to save the witch, Gadget Hackwrench! Please, help me free her from that demon!"

"Devil" Huggin corrected.

"Huh? That's what I said!"

"No" The raven retorted, quite miffed. "You said demon. The correct name is devil. There is a difference" Then, he turned his gaze towards the old god. "Father, may I educate this mortal rodent?"

Odin nodded. Chip shifted his stance and clenched his teeth, obviously displeased by this unwanted turn in the conversation and that dismissive way he was called 'rodent'.

"Demons and devils are distinct in that demons are _chaotic_ and devils are _lawful" The raven lectured with gusto. "_ Both evil of course, but on opposite ends of an evil spectrum".

"Lawful?" Chip argued with an ironic grin on his face.

"Yes, lawful evil! It means devils play by rules and codes of conduct. Obviously, for diabolic goals, but even so... they usually loath to break their promises and twisted laws"

These last words made Chip fall in a deep thought. " _That's why that devil, Mephisto, uses contracts..._ " Then, shaking his head, took a step forward with ignited determination. "I don't care about titles or behavior of beasts who trade on souls! Just help me save Gadget!"

"Save her?" Huggin raised his head at the ruins beyond. "I see her quite safe now"

"Save her from that devil Mephisto, I mean!"

"Oh that... unless you are a lawyer, there is nothing to do there"

"Not even a lawyer would do" Munnin chimed in. "She signed that contract willingly"

Chip threw the raven a killing gaze. "That's not true! Her sister convinced her to sign! She is an innocent victim!

"Nobody forced her paw, though" Huggin countered.

"And she got what she asked for. It was a fair trade" Munnin followed, clearly enjoying this game of arguments.

And as expected, the ranger raised his tone. "What about her soul! If we don't do something, the day she dies she will go directly to hell!"

But the pair of ravens just shrugged it off. "Just as the contract stipulates, in big enough words. No foul play there"

"Chill out, is not like that's gonna happen tomorrow..."

"Arghh, come on! Gotta be some way!" Chip blurted out exasperated.

"You must learn to let it go, chipmunk!"

Suddenly, an exasperated Odin pierced the ground with his staff. The thundering spark it caused was enough to stop the arguing parties dead on their tracks. "Enough!" The one-eyed god commanded, his voice echoing inside their very minds.

"Yes, father..." Both ravens shrunk apologetically .

The chipmunk, meanwhile, endured a jolt of blindness. Pain that made him rub his eyes and also bury the last threads of doubts about the reality of this encounter.

Then, without the need of a chant or motion of fingers, Odin made Chip levitate in the air. He didn't complain or struggle. By this point, the black-nosed chipmunk was quite hardened against the shocks of falling victim of magic tricks. All the contrary, it pleased him that this ancient god actually wanted to meet him eye to eye.

"She doesn't want to be saved" The god pointedly affirmed.

"I don't care!"

Odin was pleased to find these hints of defiance in the ranger's stern gaze and crossed arms, but Chip couldn't keep the tough stance for long. With a sigh, he admitted: "Even though I don't know how to save her... So please, Odin! Help me! I'll do anything!"

The clash of weapons resounded again, back at the present day. Chip's left purple longsword, Munnin's feather, had managed to pick off another spear aimed at his throat.

Another wave of memories came to the ranger.

"Longswords? I'm not very proficient with these... I usually wield knives" He had admitted on that night, to which the all-father only answered with a cryptic "You shall find they'll suit you good enough"

And indeed, these swords were as weightless as air itself.

"The christian god allows this silver-tongued serpent Mephisto to roam the Earth to test the believer's fidelity and devotion. But I won't let it prey on the descendants of my people within my own garden!" Odin had declared incensed. "Just like two years ago, I ask thee again, become my champion and wield these magical feathers! With them, you will not only be able to injure and kill the serpent, but you will also save your friend! Be the hero these terrorized lands need!"

And so Chip Maplewood signed his own contract. Not with blood, but with his own unwavering will and resolve. Now, armed with these purple ethereal blades and Odin's grace, the ranger was able to answer the inquisitor's furious attacks with incredible parries and counter thrusts. The tide of the fight turned around. Feathery strikes came in swiftly one after the other, and soon Chip found himself dancing around the spears in a flurry of spinning cuts that left the soldiers filled with astonishment as well as a growing sense of dread.

Fear gave way to desperation, and desperation gave way to a reckless action from Caesar.

For the first time in the whole encounter, the woodland ranger had turned his back on him, in order to block the spear of his comrade Artus with a left cross slash. Fabrice, by pure chance, thrusted forward as well, only to be stopped by a desperate parry of Chip's right longsword. As result, a window of opportunity less than a second wide opened for the rookie of the squad.

And he would use it. Sucking in his breath, Caesar came in for a quick stab at the spine of the chipmunk, just below the strapped quiver. But suddenly, miraculously, Chip stepped aside. Caesar's spear ripped through the green cloak, but nothing more. The musketeer's mouth fell open out of disbelief, and his own momentum forced him to take one step forward to regain balance. One step too close to Chip.

This entire time, it had been the voices of the norse ravens which helped Chip defend himself against the combined attacks of the entire squad of spearmice. Voices that made him lurch aside and away from the spear that ended up piercing his cloak. And now, these same voices told him to crouch and twist on his toe towards the attacker, and to send the right sword on a backslash under the length of the wooden weapon.

Indeed, these were not just warnings from the ravens anymore, but outright commands he had begun to follow blindly. Because by that moment, Chip was more than lost in the thrill of battle; in a lustful, supernatural excitement that reached new heights with every successful and overelaborate deflection of a deadly blow. His self-awareness almost washed away by waves of norse chants that promised glory and pleasure the moment their opponents made a mistake.

That moment arrived.

Only in the last heartbeat of the maneuver Chip realized what was about to do. His panicked mind sent orders down to his arm urging it to stop, but the arm – along with the blade – simply refused to obey.

He cut the musketeer down with a mighty sideways slash.

"Caesar!" His comrades cried in horror.

Time seemed to slow down as Chip witnessed this young mouse called Caesar drop his spear and plummet to the ground giving away a last agonizing breath. _"_ _No!"_ Chip's mind cried out aghast. _"_ _What have I done!?"_

" _One less!"_ Huggin celebrated.

" _Wait! I didn't want to kill him! You... you forced me!"_

" _Kill or be killed, chipmunk!" Now raise your guard, there is still three of them breathing!"_

The grip on the blades fastened, the body stood up awkwardly - jerking the head upwards and to the side - then turned around and raised the dual swords at the remaining musketeers. All of this happening against Chip's wishes. _"_ _What are you doing!? Stop it! Let me go!"_

Munnin sighed exasperated. _"_ _I can't believe we are having this conversation right now... Didn't you said yesterday you would do anything to save your girl, Gadget?"_

" _What? I..."_

" _Oh yes, you said it! Now, let us help you keep that promise!"_

The blades forced Chip to charge forward at the musketeers with an unnatural high jump. On that moment, the sun hid in grief, the sky turned red and the night in Normandy began with a series of spine-chilling screams.


	2. Chapter 2 - A rat's nest

**Chapter 2 – A rat's nest**

Tammy sighed the moment she saw the sun setting behind a nearby hill. Night was about to fall on that solitary path across the forest. The crimson atmosphere gave the squirrel ominous thoughts, as there were yet not signs of Chip, Monterey Jack or Zipper. Not a sign of them since that same morning when their hideout was spotted by inquisition explorers and they had to scramble away in a hurry.

With that memory playing again in her mind, Tammy sent a glare at Dale who was running right behind of her.

But 'running' was a very optimistic word. Actually, they were just walking as fast as they could, carrying the dormant forms of Gadget and Foxglove on their backs. Dale, always the gentleman, took care of his girlfriend, which left Tammy in charge of walking with the witch hanging over her shoulder, one arm around her neck.

Certainly, the bat and the mouse were unable to take care of themselves by the time being. In the case of Foxglove, it was in her nature to sleep during daytime. In the case of Gadget, the witch couldn't help but give up and fall sleep by some sort of enchantment the moment the morning sun touched her face.

"Damn you, Gadget, why must you complicate my life in so many ways!" Tammy complained not-so-subtly.

On that moment, Gadget mumbled in dreams, right next to her friend's ear. "Add manganese, silicon, nickel, and copper to increase strength by forming solid solutions in ferrite. Chromium, vanadium, molybdenum, and tungsten increase strength by forming second-phase carbides…"

"Ugh" The squirrel shivered with her fur standing on edge. "This witch is talking in tongues!"

Some steps behind her, Dale Oakmont beamed a naughty smile. He was well aware of the animosity between her boss and the blonde witch, and to be witness of the young hostess' reactions was one of the reasons he insisted on running away with Foxglove and not Gadget on his back after the inquisitors stormed the ruins the group were using as hideout. Oh, how Tammy insisted to change places with him during the first hour or so, but the bard just didn't relent. The squirrel finally, begrudgingly, accepted her fate and guided Chip's new friend through the forest the rest of the day. And it was certainly paying off in fun and giggles.

The trail they were passing by finally got to an end, and at short distance, concealed by vines and foliage at the base of a hill, the group found their destination: A cave known by the animal population of the forest as the river pirate's hideout.

And on that moment, the last ray of sun expired.

Foxglove stirred slowly, brushing her cheek against Dale's, delighted with the familiar scent of her minstrel boyfriend. Again, just like many times before, she was slowly waking up in the arms of the chipmunk bard she loved so very much.

"Mmmhh, good evening darling!" She greeted as she snuggled against Dale's neck. "How was your day?"

Gadget's awakening, on the other side, was everything but peaceful. As soon as she regained conscience, the dark magic inside of her reacted against Tammy's divine nature, resulting in a discharge of magical sparks that threw each other on opposite directions, like burning oil reacting against water. "Golly!"

"Ow ow ow!"

The bard and the rogue quickly went to their side. "Gadget, Tammy! Are you all right?"

The witch accepted Dale's helping paw to stand up. "I…" She stuttered while shaking her head out of the concussion. "I think so"

"Ugh!" The young hostess rolled on the grass and lifted her head towards Dale and Gadget. "This is… your fault…" She managed to say before letting herself fall flat again. "This whole day has been horrible!"

A worried Foxglove helped her stand up again. "Tammy, hey... cheer up! At least we are all awake now, awake and safe"

"No, not all of us" Tammy answered disheartened, casting her newly learned healing spells all over her body. "Chipper hasn't come back yet. Neither Monterey and Zipper"

Foxglove bit her tongue, realizing what her friend had said was true. There was no signal of the guys anywhere nearby, not by sight, not by echolocation.

Dale then joined the conversation. "Come on girls, it was Chipper's idea to regroup at Stone coffer. What if… what if he is already there waiting for us?"

Tammy glanced at the nearby cave. It had some activity tonight, fragrances of humans and animals coming to and from the place. And the chances of running into soldiers from the inquisition while in there was practically zero. Stone Coffer, the rodent underground keep hidden inside the cave was a hub for illegal activities, and its residents had no tolerance or mercy for law enforcers trespassing its gates.

"Perhaps you are right" The weary squirrel conceded with a heavy sigh. "Perhaps Chipper and the others are already there, as planned"

The bat rogue lifted off the ground. "Let's go then, guys. At the very least we gotta find an inn for Dale and Tammy to rest"

The cleric gave her friend a weary smile and started to walk again. "A warm bed and some dinner would be welcome but… I don't have any gold left"

"Oh, you can leave that to me!" Dale hung his lute around the neck and fidgeted with the chords. "I promise I'll make good money tonight for you, ladies!"

"Just don't do anything crazy, ok? We need to keep a low profile", Then, Tammy's eyes drifted toward Gadget, who had been silent all this time. "Hey witch, what's up with you?"

Dale and Foxglove turned as well to the mouse, who was standing some steps behind, caressing her right palm up down in a pensive mood.

"You alright, darling?" The pink bat asked fluttering back some steps.

"Huh?" Gadget snapped out of her thoughts. "Oh! Yes… huh, time to go?"

With that, Tammy lost another ounce of patience. "Yes, time to go! To the cave. In that direction"

"Roger!" The mouse took her broomstick out of the folding of her magical cloak. "Who wants to fly with me?"

"No no no no! Are you crazy? We must arrive there like normal people, not some kind of minions from hell! No flying, no spells, no strange words, got it?"

"Ah sure" Gadget nodded with a dismissing wave of her paw. "I can do that, no problem!"

Still, Tammy's eyes didn't stop glaring on her. "No brooms, either"

"Ups, sorry!" At once, a tentacle grabbed the broomstick and took it back to the depths of the cloak. Then, Gadget put her hood on, concealing her whole face except for the muzzle and some bangs of long and scruffy blonde hair. "I'm normal looking and ready to go! No problem!"

"Whatever… let's just get going" Tammy turned around and pointed at the road forward. The annoyance in her face was evident for Dale and Foxglove, who joined her in martial silence, well aware their friend was refraining herself from explode again in another fit of rage.

Behind them, Gadget followed. Not a breath later, though, she rubbed her right palm again. " _Chip… I don't understand… where are you?_ "

For when she earlier grabbed Dale's paw another round of unwanted visions assaulted her. A flash in her mind which showed Chip's brown eyes set in an expression of hysterical excitement, only to the image to be abruptly cut by the shrieking cry of a winged beast.

Night fully embraced the land of Normandy, just as the four companions set step into the mouth of the cave. Upon passing along some low shrubs and later a series of stalagmites, they found a rodent-built trail that took them further into the darkest bowels of the cave. They were not alone, though. On the way they came across parties of small animals and insects minding their own businesses on that warm night of September. None of them gave Tammy's group a second look. Then, after some turns in the uneven and barely lit cave floor, the four heroes suddenly found themselves standing in front of a high wall made of stone and mortar . Its studded gate marked the entrance to Stone coffer: the city of thieves.

Stone coffer was a place like no other. For starters, its foundation could be traced many generations ago, by people now long gone and forgotten. Rodents who left behind a main keep of more than twenty rooms and halls of different sizes with access to a nearby puddle of fresh water. Half of the building was carved on the wall of the cave, with a tower made of stones that stood out like a stalagmite with windows and balconies. The bailey that surrounded it grew in extension over time, with houses and shops ready to maintain a steady and low increasing rodent population. Secondly, unlike any other place around, its name was of English origin. A curiosity that had been fuel for many tales and legends among the animal population of Normandy. The most popular one was that English rodent pirates discovered the place and used it as a steady base of operations in order to run raids on the rest of forest towns found around the cave. Over time, the name Stone coffer gained fame and notoriety as a den of thieves and smugglers, criminals who even had the audacity to create their own royalty: a king of thieves who ruled over the keep and population with an iron fist.

As she walked pass the outer wall and into the main yard, Foxglove couldn't help but shiver at the sight of a pair of muscled, tattooed rats that were showing off their skills throwing knives over the head of a haunted but very still young mouse. Nearby, another group of shady rodents seemed about to start a fight over a game of cards. "Guys, I'm having second thoughts about this plan. I didn't think we could find so many… dangerous people in a single place"

Tammy glanced to her over the shoulder and smiled. "Relax, even down here there are rules to keep everything in civil terms and guards to enforce these rules"

"Have you… have you been here before?"

"No, but my dad has. He…"

Dale interrupted her, as usual. "Gerald? Here? How?"

"As I was saying! My dad comes here from time to time to check the king's health and perform surgeries. These people get injured very often and my Dad is like, the only doctor this king trusts enough to let him perform his skills inside the town.

"Wow!" Foxglove gasped in awe. "So your family is in good terms with this king of thieves?"

Tammy just chuckled and shook her head. "Not exactly. Dad insisted I wasn't involved with this place" Here she drew a deep breath. "I agree with him wholeheartedly. Actually, I don't see myself patching up injured criminals like my father does"

"We are criminals now, sweetheart"

"No, we aren't! Just wrongly accused people!" The hostess quickly pointed out.

The layout of the shops and taverns took them all the way towards the puddle of water and the square built right next to it. There the crowd was thicker, bursting with activity on that early night. Entire groups of mice, rats and bats were dining, drinking and downright partying on a series of stands and tables disposed for some unknown festivity. The old keep, that tower embedded in the cave wall, stood at the opposite side of the square like a silent judge of the people at its feet.

Dale took his girlfriend by the arm and whispered to her ear. "Foxy, all these bats above us… could any of them be working for your father?"

"Not likely, sweetie" The pink bat reassured him. "They are outcasts. Not aligned to any chief, much less to my strict lawful father"

"Phew, I'm glad to hear that!" The bard said, relieved. So relieved, that he started to fiddle with the chords of his lute.

Unrestrained laughter echoed all over the square, prompting Gadget to wonder what kind of jokes could these people be telling each other, to achieve such loud responses. That is, she wondered until the moment she glanced into a nearby barrel and found it brimming with fermented grape juice. "So obvious. Alcohol, the cause of all of the world's problems"

"And the solution!" An intoxicated wrinkled green lizard said as he sunk a jar into the barrel. "Want some, lass? Tonight, wine runs free!"

The witch waved that off. "Oh no, thanks! I'm keeping a low profile tonight!"

"Hah!" The geezer laughed and then guzzled the whole jar down in a single gulp. "Cheer up, my good, scruffy girl! We are celebrating tonight! Come on, go wild with me!"

"Me, go wild? I wouldn't dare. But then again, I guess I could blend in some more if I join your festivity. A serious person in the middle of a party is suspicious, isn't it? In conclusion, give me a pint of that, please"

Just as Gadget reached for her beverage, Tammy and Foxglove pulled her away. "What are you doing, w…, I mean, Gadget!" Tammy berated her. "Don't speak with them, they are dangerous people!"

Foxglove gave the lizard an awkward smile. "Sorry about my friend, she is new around here!"

"Har har har!" The lizard laughed them off and walked away swaying from side to side, his jar of wine spilling all over. "Oh these youngsters, they are so young!" Then he glanced back over his shoulder one last time. "Just don't forget to pay your respects to our new king!"

"New king?" Tammy was shocked to hear that. "What are you talking about?"

"Lass, what do you think this celebration is about? The guild war has ended; Rat Capone is victorious!"

"Rat Capone? Guild war?"

The lizard leaned against a post and shrugged amused. "Oh you foreigners, coming to a party you know nothing about! Let Sugar Ray Lizard – that's me – be your teacher. It all started two months ago, when our previous king, good old Captain Olivier the slasher, died in Paris fighting the inquisition!"

"What? Two months ago?"

"As soon as the news came to this place, war erupted among us! brother against brother, thief against thief, a real onslaught I tell ye! Then, one by one, the leaders of the revolt were subdued – and promptly executed - by an Italian mobster and his crew that came from… Italy. Now we have peace again. Come on, shout with me! Long live king Rat Capone!

Then, the drunken lizard noticed a commotion at the girl's back. "Oh, looks like we have a fight! Fight, fight!" He then stood and made his way towards the appalling spectacle.

"No, wait! Don't go!" Tammy quickly followed him. "Please tell me more, was doctor Gerald Squirrel with king Olivier? The doctor is my father! Is he still alive?"

But the lizard refused to say anything else. He, along with many others, were thrilled by the unexpected duel that was brewing on that exact moment at the square.

Tammy and Foxglove, in their pursuit of the drunken lizard, got themselves at the front of the multitude that encircled the quarreling opponents. The girl's jaws dropped the moment they found one of them was… Dale.

"Go away, you fool!" A mockingbird minstrel threw the intruder an incensed stare. "Don't dare step on my stage!"

"Your stage!?" A defiant Dale stood his ground. "Sir, If it's true you are the owner, then I challenge you to a duel! Out with the old, in with the new!" He then turned around to the crowd. "Isn't that right, friends?"

"Oh, the indignation!" The bird turned also towards the audience with a big display of mannerisms. "Oh, the outrage! Me, Giuseppe Satinfeathers, who has spent his entire life entertaining the town in this very stage, who has performed for kings and queens that had the power of life and death over us, today founds himself pestered by a lowly gypsy from the deep wilderness!" After a pause for breath, he turned his back on Dale to point his wing at a certain balcony on the tower. "Today! Today of all days, right when a new ruler gazes down to us, I'm challenged in my second home by a filthy, clumsy, wandering minstrel, by a…"

The moment he turned again to face Dale, he received a glove to the face.

All the people gathered around held their breath, too awestruck to move or even make a sound.

Actually, Tammy moved. She facepalmed.

An unashamed Dale drew forth his lute and started fidgeting the chords. "So, ready to perform against me, monsieur mockingbird? What will it be? Poems, songs?"

"That does it! Come here, you little…" The bird, instead of engaging in a contest of creative skills, opted to jump at Dale with claws and beak. "I'll teach you manners right here!"

"Ouch! No, stop it! That's not what I had in mind!"

The audience broke in laughter. Bets for one or another duelist soon started to run as Tammy, Foxglove and Gadget looked for a way to help their friend. Certainly, any attempt to step by his side would draw unwanted attention to them, not to mention the ire of the people who wanted to keep a fair fight. However, on the moment Dale grabbed one of the bird's legs and received a furious pecking in the head response, his girlfriend decided to act.

"No Foxy, wait!" Tammy tried to hold her by the shoulder, but it was too late. "Oh God…"

The pink bat broke in by tackling the mockingbird away from her betrothed. "Leave my pumpkin alone!"

"Booo! Booo! That's cheating!" The people around yelled outraged by this turn of events.

"Tammy, guards are coming!" whispered Gadget as the crowd gave way to a trio of muscled rats in leather armor. Then, she stepped out of the way, avoiding their gaze.

"In the name of king Capone, what is going on here?" One of those rats demanded as he stepped in.

The enraged Giussepe freed his leg from Dale's grasp and fluttered toward the guards. "Help! Help! These pair of foreign scoundrels want to sabotage my concert! Take them to the dungeons, I demand it!"

The officer gnarled at Dale and his girlfriend. "Out of all the people you could pick a fight with, you had to choose the king's favorite bard. I hope you know we'll be forced to make an example out of you"

"Wait, wait!" Tammy stepped forward, her paws up in the air asking for mercy. "My friends and I are not looking for any trouble! Look, my name is Tammy Squirrel!"

"So what?" The guard said as he signaled the rest of his troop to restrain them. "Now, get on your knees!"

"I'm the daughter of Gerald Squirrel, the personal doctor of your previous King!"

That statement was received by blank stares of everybody around, as if ethereal interrogation marks were floating over their heads.

After some moments of confusion, one rodent in the crowd raised the question. "Who?"

"Never heard of him" The rat officer shrugged.

"Bullshit, Captain Olivier never had a doctor following him around!" The old lizard from before declared. "I should know, I served twelve years under his command. The captain's disdain for those who want to fix every illness with leeches and amputations is well know!"

"True, true!" The crowd gathered around murmured. "Cap'n was always healthy as stone!" Said another pirate. "The captain had no need for doctors!"

All these words left Tammy cold and speechless. "It… it can't be. What's going on here?"

"Enough!" Giuseppe yelled out. "Guards, take them out of my sight!"

"Come with us, you three! Do not resist!"

"No, wait!" Tammy yelled as she, Dale and Foxglove were taken in the direction of the tower. "This is a misunderstanding! Chip, help me!"

The crowd dispersed from the square, disappointed with the outcome of the 'duel' and demanding their money back. This in turn caused another series of brief brawls what cheered up the atmosphere of the place again. Meanwhile, on the square only a cloaked mouse with blonde bangs of hair remained. Once she was sure nobody was looking on her direction, she drew patters with the fingers, whispered some words and then, simply disappeared.


	3. Chapter 3 - Out of the forest

**Chapter 3 – Out of the forest**

Far away from Pirate's hideout, back in the heart of the forest, Monterey Jack came out from a thick underbrush. "Blimey! This place's got as dark as the devil's coat! Oi swear I cannot see beyond my mustache! Zipper, mate! Where are ye?"

The little fly in red leather armor appeared out of the darkness that lied ahead. "Right here, Monty! Sorry, I got this smell and…"

"Smell? There ain't no fragrance of interest around us besides those of dirt, bark and rotting berries. I say, let's go back to the rendezvous point and continue our search tomorrow morning"

"Hey, we can't go back without Chip! We promised them!"

Monterey scoffed annoyed. "Rite, rite… Let's look for our chipmunk some more. I just hope nothing bigger than me finds us first in this black patch of forest"

Zipper perched himself on his friend's right shoulder. "Oh you will be fine, there are only critters like me around us, none of them… huh?"

"None of them, what?"

"That smell is back, stronger than before"

The big mouse sniffed the air methodically from left to right. "Hmpf! Now that you mention it"

Then, both partners stared at each other in realization. "Blood!"

"Quick, this way Monty!"

"Rite behind ye, mate!"

They made their way through the obscured vegetation and towards the source of that acrid, metallic odor. What they found, in the middle of an trail of flattened soil, gave them chills in a way they have never felt before.

They found Chip Maplewood, limping down the road, swaying from one side to the other with a haunted expression and his clothes torn to rags -crimson stained rags-.

"Mary queen of Scotland!" Monterey muttered, completely taken aback by the woeful state of his companion. "Chip, mate! Are you injured?"

The black nosed chipmunk silently shook his head twice in response, then kept on walking, passing between the shocked pair of knights barely addressing their presence.

"Wait for us!" Zipper quickly flew and put himself right between the ranger's eyes. That's when he realized the glow on the chipmunk's gaze was almost gone. Gone along with that smug trademark expression he had showed off plenty just two nights before. Today, the little scout couldn't help but compare Chip with a ghostly, wretched apparition.

Monterey, meanwhile, grabbed the ranger by the shoulder and dared to ask. "What happened with the musketeers that were after you?"

He turned around, his eyes growing wider as in shock. "… I killed them" He answered with a trembling and breaking voice.

"You killed them?"

Then, a visibly distraught Zipper flew back to his friend. "Monty, that blood isn't his!"

As Monterey Jack blinked in disbelief, Chip swayed away a pair of steps, then slumped to his knees, shaking arms pinned against the stomach. "Yes, I killed all of them! Colombe, Caesar, Fabrice, Artus… But I didn't want to kill them! I was forced to!"

Suddenly, the ranger's alien inner voice cried. "Look out!"

"Shut up!" Chip yelled in rage, a moment before being hit in the head from behind and fall unconscious to the ground.

His ambusher, Monterey Jack, looked at the still form of the ranger and let go a sigh of relief. "Phew, we are done here Zipper… lets go back to captain Patrick's camp"

Zipper, who had landed next to Chip to check on his condition, scratched his head. "Why did he told us to shut up? We attacked him in complete silence"

"Ye 'now, Zip" Monterey stated as he knelt to tie together the chipmunk's arms. "In the two days we shared with Chip and company, I've come to realize they all have some screws loose"

* * *

Many hours later, Chip woke up to the monotonous sound of horse's hooves stepping on cobblestones. A bump on the road further helped the chipmunk to regain awareness about him and his surroundings. He was… inside a wooden cage, his ankles and wrists tied – quite strongly – together. Beyond the bars, he also made notice of a collection of human-sized wicker baskets which smelled to a variety of fresh vegetables. "So, I'm traveling hidden in a farmer's cart" Chip correctly reasoned.

Not a second later, a pulsating headache assaulted him without mercy. As he winced and fell flat again on the floor of the cage, he reckoned his weapons and cloak were gone, along with his leather tunic and belts. In fact, he was wearing only his shirt, once white, now blood stained. A rag that became a grotesque reminder of the massacre he had committed hours before. The mere thought of it, filled with sounds of clashing blades and harrowing screams, made Chip shake his head in revulsion.

However, upon opening his eyes again, Chip actually felt his mind sharper and more conscious than the day before. These inner voices were gone along with that numbing feeling of hopeless submission. An obvious consequence, he concluded after clenching and unclenching his paws, as the maligned raven blades were nowhere close to him, nowhere to be seen.

But any kind of relief he could have felt was soon cut short by the reality of his situation. Possessed or not, he had murdered in cold blood four members of Rouen's musketeer garrison. He was now a murderer, a criminal. His old mentor André even had a word for it: a fallen ranger.

Tied as he was, he managed to sit down against the bars. A movement that didn't go unnoticed by the warden. To Chip's horror, that warden was no other than Monterey Jack.

"M-Monterey?"

"Hello there, Chip" The big mouse grinned at the prisoner. "I was starting to think you wouldn't come back to the land of the living. To get the correct measure of force when knocking someone senseless is not an easy task for the strongest mouse of Scotland"

Chip jerked his neck side to side, unable to do anything else to ease the pain from the aforementioned headache. "Really? It feels more like a backstab. A backstab from someone I trusted! Why, why are you doing this!?"

A serious scowl crept up over the hulking knight's face upon hearing these words and, just when he was about to retort, the leader of the inquisitors - a blue lizard dressed in black and white uniform and wearing a feathered hat – joined the conversation.

"Ah, Ranger Maplewood! Good to see you awake!" Patrick Lefevre greeted him with a reptilian hissing accent, a bitten piece of lettuce in his right paw.

And indeed, Chip jumped at the sound of the all-too-familiar voice. "Patrick!"

The blue lizard leaned closer to the prisoner's cage, so much that both gazes had a chance to meet and study each other. "Well, he seems to be in good condition" The inquisitor commented with a hint of satisfaction, then he chowed another bit of lettuce and turned to Monterey. "I was starting to worry he wouldn't survive the night. I'm well aware you have problems holding back your strength in the middle of a combat, Sir Jack"

"We were just talking about that, cap'n!" The mouse commented quite proudly. "I hope yer opinion about me and Zipper has now changed and even improved"

"Why are you two so concerned about my well-being?"

The captain walked around the cage to make sure it was sturdy enough, and at the same time, he proceeded to explain. "Good question, Maplewood! Let me put it this way: People all over in Normandy are scared to death by the events that you and your friends caused in Saint Pierre three nights ago. As consequence, commoners and nobility are turning to the inquisition and Rouen's garrison for protection against the forces of Hell that had descended on our lands"

"So, you are planning to show me around like a prize?"

"Pfft! No, ranger Maplewood. We are on our way to Rouen with orders to deliver you to our inquisition partners. Once there, I assume they will get you judged by the crime of witchcraft, which in turn will allow them to burn you at the stake in front of the whole city, as law goes"

Tipping his wide feathered hat Patrick turned around and left, satisfied with the frightened expression of the prisoner. The lizard was one of these kinds of people who loved to sow seeds of fear in the mind of his enemies, to torment them and watch them sink in despair. A hobby that grew into a talent while working for the ruthless French inquisition.

A pale Chip let himself fall on the hard floor of his cage. "So this is it" He thought broodily. "I'll be burned like a cultist in front of a crowd. Burned to death…"

As Monterey and Zipper turned around to leave, Chip gazed at him again. "I didn't know you hated me so much"

The knight looked over his shoulder, grumbled, and then walked away.

Chip rolled to one side, covered his face with the tied paws and fought the impulse to cry in front of the appointed musketeer that arrived in that same moment to stand guard on him.

"It's ironic" He thought with remorse. "I ended up changing places with the person I set up to rescue. At least she and Tammy managed to escape. They must have arrived at Stone Coffer by now. I wonder…" Here he let out a sigh of defeat. "I wonder if they are still waiting for me"


	4. Chapter 4 - Golden prizes

**Chapter 4 – Golden prizes**

Tammy Lombardi spent the early hours of the day curled on a corner of her cold cell, too distraught to even try to close her eyes and rest. The torrents of unanswered questions that were parading in her mind wouldn't allow it.

Why nobody remembered her father? She asked herself in the darkness. "That's impossible, he used to come here as often as every month! Or so he said…"

Memories went back to a very common scene. "Dad, I want to go with you! I want to travel to Pirate's hideout and Stone coffer! Pleaseeee Daddy!"

"Sorry dear!" Gerald would say as Bethany stuffed his backpack full of medicines, herbs and other concoctions. "The trip to the cave is a long one, we could run into humans, and I don't want you to catch any sickness from lies down in that dark and moist cave"

And then he would just say goodbye and leave for a week or so.

A tear rolled down the girl's cheek. "Dad… why nobody knows you? Perhaps… you used to go somewhere else? Perhaps… to another family?"

The young squirrel couldn't contain herself anymore. Not with the image of her father cheating on her and her mother. Clutching her knees to the chest, she started to cry inconsolably.

Tammy's sadness didn't go unnoticed by Foxglove, who was well awake and aware in the next cell.

"Tammy?" The bat plugged her ears against the wall and waited for a response.

A response which came as a whisper audible only by the keen ears of a bat. "Foxy? Is that you?"

"Yes, it's me, darling! Are you crying? Please don't!"

"I'm sorry!" Tammy apologized as she crawled toward their shared wall. I just… I just can't take it anymore! This has been the worst day of my life!"

"I know, honey! I know!" Foxy gently answered. "Just hold on a bit longer, I'm sure we will solve this in the morning! Come on, one would assume street brawls are light offenses in this town!"

The joke made Tammy smile for a moment. "I guess you are right. Perhaps they will let us go once the celebration ends. And… how is Dale doing?"

"Oh, my sweetie fell asleep a while ago! Brooding about the outcome of his duel with that horrible mockingbird drained his energies. Up to the point he didn't care anymore about falling asleep in the cold rock. I can even hear him snoring"

"He never changes, huh?"

"All the contrary, he never ceases to surprise me!"

Some minutes later, Foxglove's ears picked on the sound of steps on the corridor. One or two seconds afterwards, Tammy noticed them as well. The two girls quickly crawled away from the wall and to the corner of their cells, expecting a guard doing a routine check on the prisoners.

However, something was wrong with these step sounds, Foxglove noticed, as if they didn't match the weight of an armored guard. Her apprehension only increased as the wooden door of her cell suddenly got unlocked without the help of an inserted key.

And the one who opened the door was…

"Gadget!" The bat exclaimed and ran to hug her.

"Me, indeed!" The mouse said as she happily hugged back her friend.

Tammy, standing now and peering over the small barred window of her cell, felt her heart sink. Obviously, she was expecting a certain ranger chipmunk to come to her rescue.

And she barely hid her disappointment when the witch let her free. "Gadget, are you… alone? What about Chip?"

"He hasn't arrived yet" She answered with a hint of anxiety in her voice. Then proceeded to Dale's cell, which had no problems to find, as the red nose of the chipmunk was already protruding out the door's window.

The witch weaved her paw over the door's knob and whispered the magic word: "knock". On the instant, the door got unlocked and Dale jumped out ecstatic.

"Yes, I'm free, free at last!"

The girls, who didn't expect their friend to be that loud, promptly tackled him and put their paws on his mouth.

"Dale, for God's sake, have you forgotten where are we? Keep quiet!"

"Come on darling, don't sing victory until we are out of this place!"

"Mmph, mmfgh! I mean, sorry, sorry!"

"Guys, guys!" The female mouse promptly gripped their companions by the paws. "Get up! We gotta leave at once!"

"Gadget!" The pink bat sprung back to her feet. "Why the hurry and your racing heartbeats? Looks like you just saw a ghost!"

"A ghost? No, not since I left my home weeks ago" Gadget awkwardly said as she quickly tiptoed toward the exit door. Then, even more alarmed, she ran back to the cell's corridor. "Oh no! They are already here!"

Gadget pushed her friends back to Dale's cell, closed the door, and then cast a spell as fast as she could. "Keep quiet, we are invisible now!"

The warning came just in time, as a group of rodents came into the prison. "So, Arnold, is here where they are locked?" A baritone voice with a remarkable Italian accent spoke.

"Yes my king!" Affirmed another voice which the companions recognized as that of the officer who arrested them in the first place.

"Excellent! Show them to me at once! I want to take a good look at our walking treasures!"

"Walking treasures?" The squirrel wondered in a whisper. Then, the door of the cell opened again. Arnold and a rat of short stature with grey fur and prominent lips peeked in and their mouths fell open.

"Where is the prisoner!?" The short grey rat demanded to know, even though the group of friends was right in front of him. They didn't dare to move or even breath.

"I… He should be here, my king! The alarmed guard then ran to the other cells, only to find them opened. "Impossible! They've… escaped!"

"Escaped!?" Rat Capone, the king of thieves, raised his arm as high as he could and slapped Arnold on the face. "Are you kidding me? The squirrel and the chipmunk are worth almost one thousand gold nuggets together! Dammit! this can't be happening to me!"

A third, feminine voice - this one delivering words with a strong French accent - joined the discussion. "How could they escape? Aren't these the only keys for the cells?"

The hulking rat glanced down at the collection of keys hanging from his belt. "I… yes, these are the only keys. Wait, lady Desiree, I didn't let them out! I've been patrolling the town the whole night!"

"Indeed you have, ma chérie" The slender female mouse called Desiree crossed her arms and looked with suspicion at the exit door. "And we just reprimanded a pair of sleeping guards on our way here. How suspicious…"

"Enough babbling you two!" King Capone threw a tantrum at his servants. "Go and find the chipmunk and his friends right now, don't come back without them!"

"At once, my king!" Both rodents stood straight for a moment and then hurried outside. The king quickly followed them, leaving the prison again shrouded in darkness and silence.

"We are clear!" The voice of the invisible witch sounded. "Come on, let's go out!"

"We are still invisible, right?" Dale wondered stepping into the corridor. "So we can just walk past every guard we find on our way out?"

"Beware of us bats, though" Foxglove quickly pointed out. "I can still see you as clear as day!" Then, she turned to her squirrel friend, who was stretching her arms forward clumsily.

"Gadget, wait!" Tammy tried again and again to catch the invisible witch. "What does that rat meant by one thousand gold nuggets?"

"There are bounties on you and Dale's heads" She calmly answered, as if that was a matter of no importance at that moment. "There is another one for me, even bigger"

"What? Who posted them?"

"The French inquisition, of course! It all started with an offhand comment made by a provider of liquors that arrived not long ago. From there his words ran among the population in a beautiful logarithmical spread model. However, once a guard got aware of your real monetary value, he ran to inform the king directly, thus breaking the natural course of the rumour. Ah yes, that's also when I realized I had to stop searching for Chip and hurry down here to get you out"

"T-thanks I guess?"

"A bounty on me?" Dale was shocked to learn that. "That's bad publicity! Wait, how much are we talking about again?"

"Dale, shush!"

"Just saying! Perhaps my mother won't be so mad at me if the bounty overwhelms her first"

Upon the uncomfortable silence of his friends, Dale opted to change the topic. "Uhh anyway, can we go get my lute on our way out?"

The group made their silent way through the castle's stone carved corridors and toward the nearest exit. Once they got to the doors, they had to wait until a guard walked in and then slip out as fast as they could. Gadget was the last one, but her oversized silk cloak was caught by the closing door making her stumble and fall backwards. Foxglove freed her by daring to knock at the door and facing a disgruntled guard as he answered and glanced sideways looking for the visitor, even though the bat was standing right in front of him, invisible.

The castle grounds were still crowded with rodents at these early hours of the day. King Capone had called off the festivity but by then the citizens were too much into the party as to just walk away to their holes and keep quiet until further notice. And so the whole town of bandits, pirates and highwaymen just kept on partying and drinking and fighting the time away. This rebellious attitude turned out to be exactly what Tammy and company needed in order to reach the walls and its gates unnoticed by the bats fluttering above them. No bat was able to tell them apart from the rest of the bustling, alcohol-crazed crowd.

Of course, the most difficult step of the escape was at the end. Get through the reinforced doors. The ones that a trio of armed mice in rogue attires were now guarding. To make things worse, that slender female mouse who a while ago had accompanied the king to the prison was also there, engaged in an argument with a merchant while a group of rodents – no doubt, his slaves - were waiting behind his rodent-sized cart in solemn silence.

Meanwhile, Gadget led her friends behind some empty kegs.

"What do we do now?" Tammy asked glancing sideways.

"Oh I know!" Dale interjected. "Gadget will cast some flying spell on us and we'll jump over the gate! Easy!"

"Not a good idea, darling. They might not be visible in this barely lit cave but there is a party of bats gathering right above the gate, no doubt waiting for us to appear. So even if we are invisible, their inner senses may locate us if we make such a crazy move like flying over the heads of the guards"

"I see… bats are amazing!"

"Yes we are, darling" A flattered Foxglove answered.

"Whatever we do, got to do it soon!" Gadget reminded them. "My invisibility spell expires at dawn!"

Suddenly, Tammy pulled the witch by her cloak. "Hey look!"

The entire group held their breath as the sturdy gate opened in front of them with croaking sounds. Soon it became clear that the merchant had won the argument and was clear to leave the castle.

Tammy grabbed her friends by what she guessed where their shoulders and stood up. "New plan, guys! We will walk quietly next to the merchant's cart. With some luck the bats above us will think we are part of that company"

"Understood!"

The four invisible companions walked as casually as they could to the yard and to the cart's side, right where the group of mice slaves were stoically waiting for orders. Gadget and the others joined them in their formation, stood straight and waited for any signal from above. A signal that never came. They had successfully fooled the bats!

Then the merchant, an old and overweight shrew dressed in clothes so flamboyant that made Dale squirm in jealousy, shook palms with Desiree and called for his entourage to help him get on the cart's seat. The servants quickly lifted him onboard – with the help of some extra, reluctant paws- and once he got comfortable enough on the driver's seat, the aged master addressed Desiree again. "I'm glad my piece of information changed your mind, my lady"

"Adelaide Revenot's crypt at Les innocents, eh?" The rogue cupped her chin and stepped to the side. "Jewelry buried in graveyards will always pick my attention, Sir. As I use to say, the dead have no need for treasures, not as much as I do"

"Agreed, just beware of the evil spirits! Les innocents is overwhelmed with them!" He winked with a cocky smile and then turned to his troupe. "All right, you lowly creatures! Let's get going before the lady here changes her mind!"

At the shrew's command, four mice took positions at the cart's yoke. Clearly, they were going to pull the cart with their boss on in the same way horses do for humans. Another pair of well fit servants were to push the cart from behind, and the rest would walk along at the sides. Such was the positions Gadget, Dale and foxglove chose to better blend in. Tammy, all the contrary, decided to help to push the cart along with the pair of mice at the rear. All for the sake of leaving that castle as soon as possible.

By mere coincidence, Gadget walked by Desiree and looked up at her. To her horror, the rogue was following her with the gaze.

Her facade exposed, the rogue gripped and twisted the witch's arm backwards. "Gotcha!"

"Agh!" The blonde mouse yelled in pain, pain that made her lose her concentration. The invisibility spell faded and the party, as result, appeared to the sight of everyone around.

"Gadget!" They cried out and rallied to her friend.

But Desiree was faster. By the moment the heroes were upon her, she had a knife on the mouse's throat. "Halt, all of you! Or your witch dies!"

Meanwhile, the merchant was, rightly so, frozen to the bone. "W-what, in the name of God, is happening? These people, just appeared out of thin air!"

"Oh, nothing of concern, ma cherie!" She declared with a triumphant smile. "Move along, my men and I have everything under control!"

The merchant took heed of Desiree words, aided by the sight of the guards getting ready to close the gates again. He and his troupe of servants rode away hurriedly and without looking back.

The guards then closed the gate and secured it with heavy logs.

The slender rogue pressed the blade on her hostage's throat, causing her to whimper. "Now, you naughty kids, go back to your cells. Nobody has to get hurt tonight"

Dale, Tammy and Foxglove raised their paws in surrender. One second later, something at Desiree's feet caught their attention and made them gasp.

The french rogue frowned. "What are you looking at?" And only then noticed a slimy tentacle creeping up her right ankle. "Sacre blue!" She jumped backwards but tripped and fell on the ground, with the tentacle stubbornly gripping her leg. "Oh god, oh god, oh god!"

Her astonishment only grew when she saw seven more cephalopod's appendages protruding out from Gadget's velvet cloak.

"Help our boss!" One of her soldiers yelled. "Kill the witch, kill them all!"

"Stand back, Pietro!" Desiree countered as she tried to get on her feet again. "Stand back, all of you! The inquisition wants these people alive! Leave this to me!"

To show everyone her commitment, the rogue stomped the heel of her boot on the tentacle. The limb released the leg immediately and trashed around undoubtedly hurt – much to Gadget's dismay- then recoiled back to the safety of the magical cloak.

"You want to do this the hard way, huh?" She addressed the witch and the others menacingly, her paw unsheathing another long knife. "Fine by me"

On the opposite side, Tammy was also eager to fight. "Come on guys, we have fought against worse, namely Gadget's sister! Let's beat them down and get out of here!"

Following Tammy's lead, Foxglove adopted a fighter stance. "I guess we have no choice but to charge forward, huh? But with Gadget and my darling on our side, we won't lose!"

"That's the spirit! Come on Dale, cast your ice spells on them!"

The bard jumped at these words. "Wait, What? I'm no mage!"

"What do you mean? You just summoned a winter storm three nights ago!"

Gadget, always the voice of reason, raised her paw to calm her friends down. "Tammy, Dale is right. He is not the one who caused the storm, but his lute did"

"What?" The squirrel couldn't hide her shock. "Well, anyway… your lute can do it again, right? Come on, we are in a dire situation here!"

Gadget then stepped in front of her companions and addressed Desiree, who had been following the argument back and forth in silence. "Hold on a second, I need to know… how did you saw through my invisibility spell? You are no mage either"

The female rogue grinned at that perfect chance to boast. "Easy! Turns out, you don't need to be a professional mage to do a magic trick"

Gadget's curiosity turned into concern the moment she saw her opponent take a rolled parchment sealed with wax from one of her many waist bags. "Wait, is that… a magic scroll?"

Desiree didn't immediately answer. Instead, she ripped the wax seal, unrolled the piece of paper and held it extended right in front of her face. "Oh, you are gonna love this one! A third level transmutation spell: Haste!"

As soon as the thief spelled these words, the scroll burnt to ashes. The young witch and her friends held their breath in dreadful anticipation.

"Ifeellikeafeathernow!" The words got yelled at such quick pace that turned them almost unintelligible.

"This is bad!" Gadget turned to warn her friends, and just then realized -by the sudden gust of wind that flushed across her face- that Desiree was now standing right next to her. By mere reflex she stepped back, only to be caught by a lightning-fast hook to the liver, thrown at her with the pommel of a knife. A blow that bent her over and lifted her off the ground for a full second, only to make her fall again on her knees in excruciating pain.

Foxglove was the next one to fall victim of the thief's martial prowess. Awestruck as she was by the impossible signals her sonar sense was sending, combined with the confusion of watching Gadget being struck with a knife, meant the bat was too distressed to evade the insanely fast roundhouse kick Desiree threw at her. The pink bat was sent away twirling around herself half unconscious, and ended up landing on the arms of an nearby guard.

"Foxy!" Her remaining friends shouted in unison. But while Tammy spent a second to spot their opponent's position, Dale quickly came to the aid of his loved one, thus falling into a trap.

For the magic-enhanced Desiree charged at the bard with a quick strike of her left arm.

And Dale barely dodged it. "Whoa!"

"Hmph!" The french rogue squinted her eyes. "Are these innate chipmunk reflexes at work?".

She kept pressing on, with the red nosed chipmunk spending all his energy on keeping him and his lute safe and away from any harm.

The rest of guards and thieves stood on their place, guarding the gate and cheering at their leader. On the other side of the courtyard, the whole keep had arrived to see the show Desiree and Dale were unwittingly performing.

Tammy, who was standing next to Gadget, gritted her teeth unable to withstand the situation anymore. "All right, I'll join the fight! Stay here, you!"

"Cough!" The injured mouse struggled to breath. "Wait! You are our healer… Cough! You gotta stay back and defend us!"

"Stay back? Hell no! I'm a girl of action! Look at this, witch!"

And on that moment, Dale came crashing down on her hard. "Ouch!"

"Tammy!"

But the bard and the cleric didn't respond or stand up again. It was a double knockout. Meanwhile, the amused crowd gave the winner an enthusiastic round of applauses.

Desiree approached Gadget fidgeting with her knife, an intense wolfish grin on her face which exuded dominance and power. "It's all over, sorcière" She said as lightly pressed the knife's blade against the skin and fur of the witch's throat. "Don't even think on fidgeting your fingers or whisper any strange words. The moment you do it I'll cut you down and your unconscious friends will be shot to death, got it?"

The pale Gadget took a last glance at friends, then bowed her head down and silently accepted defeat.

* * *

Morning came, and king Capone received it lying face down on the cold stone floor of the throne room, a result of the drunken stupor he indulged on upon learning of the recapture of the valuable prisoners and the seize of a third bounty: the blonde witch of Saint Pierre.

As soon as he could sit again on the throne, he commanded for a messenger to be brought to him. Later on, that same messenger departed to Rouen on the back of a dove, with orders to inform and squeeze some more hundreds of gold nuggets out of the lavish church's pockets in return for their wanted bounties.

If to take advantage of the inquisition was a sin, well… then the king of the thieves was indeed a sinner.


	5. Chapter 5 - Rouen

**Chapter 5 - Rouen**

The hunting party arrived at Rouen's cathedral as its bells sung the call for the morning mass. As the lizard in command noticed on his way in, the atmosphere inside the hall was grim, even sorrowful. Human and rodents alike were chanting in unison a prayer, over and over, to the lord in the high. A desperate plea for protection against the entity that caused the strange event on the outskirts of that nearby village, Saint Pierre, three days ago. For they were certain that whoever commanded the elements of fire and snow in the middle of an August's night, was still there, perhaps in the forest, perhaps inside the city…

Patrick gazed over his shoulder at Chip who was being dragged along in chains. "Can you hear it, ranger Maplewood? The fear that raises at the end of these chants? You are to blame for it. You and that blonde witch! Our people doesn't stop talking about the apparition in Saint Pierre three nights ago and its outcome"

Embarrassed, Chip turned his head away.

"The Outcome" The captain mulled over that word. "After our clash of swords I spent the rest of the night standing still in the middle of that cold cemetery, struggling to move the muscles of my face, unable to yell for help!"

The harsh tone and the killing stare Patrick gave to his prisoner sent shivers down his entire troop's spines. Monterey and Zipper included.

"However!" He continued as he arrived at the inner rodent corridors, well hidden beneath the walls. "The spell faded with the first ray of morning light, just as the witch said. I was lucky, didn't I? I mean, she could have turned me to stone permanently, like what she did to Julien"

"Gadget didn't do such thing!" The ranger dared to reply. "It was her twin sister, Lawhinie! Come on, Monterey, tell him!"

"Aye well, the wee one is right, boss. There were two witches roaming Saint Pierre that night"

Patrick raised his scaly paw to order silence to the mercenary, then addressed the prisoner again. "Ah yes, the rumor of a second witch… and an evil twin sister, nonetheless! Ranger Maplewood, you better save these tales for the prosecutor. If you amuse him enough, He might be merciful and change the stake for the gallows"

Chip's expression then turned grave. "You make it sound as if I've been already declared guilty"

"Pretty much" The captain said as he saluted a pair of inquisition wardens. Minutes later, the group got to the lowest level of the rodent inquisition building: the prison. "Indeed, your public execution would bring some relief to the people in the whole region. Poor commoners, they can barely sleep since the night they saw you flying in a broomstick together with that blonde witch"

On command, Monterey Jack unshackled the prisoner, then violently pushed him inside the dampest, filthiest cell available. Chip fell inside rolling on his shoulder grunting and wincing.

The door was slammed shut and locked by Patrick, who then raised his paws and placed them over the wooden frame, leaning on it. He let out a tired sigh and spoke-hissed again. "Your witch – or witches – are still out there in the forest. My soldiers and I will come back there as soon as we gather provisions. It's been a while, since the Rouen garrison had to hunt a real spell caster like your companion Gadget Hackwrench. But hey, God is on our side, right? Don't worry, ranger; I'll capture all of them so you will have some company in hell. I swear it!"

A while later, the surviving squad assembled again in the cathedral's garden. Monterey Jack and Zipper again among them. The mice soldiers were exhausted, demoralized and some outright traumatized from the supernatural events they had been part of. Verily, in front of the reptilian captain stood only mere shadows of the proud and confident musketeers that had marched to Saint Pierre not a week before.

"Attention!" A sergeant with bandages on his head ordered as Patrick climbed on a rock.

"Stand at ease, soldiers!" He began his speech. "I'll be brief, even blunt, to you. Our mission is not over yet. You and I know very well that the witch that burned alive twelve of our comrades is still at large. Sooner than later we ought to head back to the forest and resume our hunt!"

The gathered soldiers received these words with somberness. Even Monterey Jack, who was always eager for action, this time slumped his shoulders down. A dreadful feeling seized the hearts of each of the soldiers that had barely survived to the inferno in Saint Pierre.

The blue lizard read the mood in the air and, surprisingly, conceded. "You will leave on leisure for today. We will depart tomorrow with the first morning light. Dismissed!"

Everybody around let out muffled signs of relief and parted away. Some went straight to their homes and family, while others went straight inside of the cathedral to join the chants, prayers and calls for divine protection.

The pair of mercenaries had just turned around when Patrick got to them again. "Sir Monterey Jack, a word with you before you leave, If I may"

"O' course, cap'n!"

"Follow me inside, please"

Zipper landed again on his friend's shoulder. "Am I required as well?"

"No, sir Zipper… You are free to leave"

"Go and have some rest, pally… We'll meet again tomorrow morning"

"Until tomorrow? Why?" The scout fly buzzed quizzically, then his eyes lit with the answer to his own question. "Oooh, I get it!"

After a wink and a wave of goodbye, the burly mouse followed the lizard back into the crevices of the cathedral and into an inner shrine where a pair of voles in rich scarlet robes and black capes, along with an old field mouse dressed in humbler priest robes, were waiting. Monterey Jack recognized the voles as part of the Rouen inquisition office. The mouse, on the other side, was a stranger to him.

He had no chance to ponder about the old mouse's origins, though, as his breath was taken away by the sight of the lifeless statue of Julien Montblanc that stood behind the clergy rodents.

"Crikey! Is that Julien Montblanc?"

"In his full stone splendor" Patrick joked as he walked towards it. A joke that nobody else in the room seemed to appreciate. "He was brought here on the morning after the incident, while you were hiding away in the company of these devil worshippers"

The inquisitor's disapproving gazes made Monterey feel uneasy. On the other side, the old priest's eyes sent signs of nothing but deep sadness.

Patrick didn't give his brazen comment any more importance. He instead placed his paw on the statue's forehead -which gave Monterey a flashing bad memory- and turned around towards the knight. "So, two witches, huh?"

"Aye, sir!" The knight stood firm and squared his shoulders. "As I wrote on my report"

"And are you completely certain that it was this second witch, Lawhinie, who killed my soldiers and turned priest Julien into stone?"

"Absolutely! If only you had been there, sir! It was the most frightening thing these eyes o'mine have ever witnessed! The gal was truly evil incarnated!"

"Excuse me, Sir" One of the voles raised his paw. "Did you just say, 'Lawhinie'?"

"Aye! Lawhinie Hackwrench, twin sister of Gadget Hackwrench"

"That foreign exotic name, I recall I overheard it once at the headquarters in Paris. The priest who uttered it was promptly reprimanded by our brother Julien. It was most curious"

Monterey Jack rubbed the back of his neck. "Now that you mention it… Julien seemed to know her from before"

The captain, along with the priests, gasped in unison. "That was nowhere in your report! Explain yourself!"

"I… I don't know. Everything around was blurred with smoke and ashes, and I was busy looking for survivors of the sudden explosion but… I'm quite sure I overheard Julien acknowledging that witch and then arguing with her about the book"

"Book?" Patrick looked genuinely surprised. "What book?"

"A grimoire, Sir! Lawhinie herself later told us Julien was in cahoots with this demon called Mephisto, and had intentions to deliver the book to him"

Here everybody lost their mind. "What book are you talking about? Julien and a demon? Impossible! Do you have any idea how many witches has he sent to the stake?"

"I… I'm just retelling what the witches told me!"

"Enough!" The lizard captain demanded, then walked back to open the door. "We've heard enough, Sir Monterey. Leave us to ponder on these matters. You are to rejoin the company tomorrow morning as planned. Understood?"

"Understood, cap'n!" The knight saluted and left the room. the door was almost slammed on his face.

The clergymice were now troubled, to say the least. By the time Patrick rejoined them, the vole inquisitors were busy convincing themselves of his fallen comrade's virtues. "Outrageous accusations! Montblanc was the best witch hunter in France! A role model here and beyond the borders!"

"A role model?" The old mouse in the back chimed in. "Did you ever were on a hunt with him?"

"Brother Louis!" One of the inquisitors exclaimed. "What are you insinuating?"

Louis LaFountaine, appointed priest of Saint Pierre, raised his paw calling for patience. "Pardon me, high priest Corentin, all I say is that Julien Montblanc struck me as a cruel fellow… sadistic, even"

"Sadistic? Do you have any idea who the inquisition deals with?"

"Oh, I have! Back in Saint Pierre Julien arrested and caged a teenager squirrel over the book that knight just mentioned!"

But the leader of Rouen's inquisitorial office wasn't eager to show any ounce of sympathy. "Yes he did, but as the good captain's own report stated. Tammy Lombardi is the daughter of a witch. That makes her a suspect of witchcraft as well. If she was indeed hiding a grimoire of black magic, then brother Julien made well in arrest her"

"Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live" The second inquisitor declared solemnly. "Exodus 22:18"

Louis sighed. He knew better than to argue with bible-quoting inquisitors. Instead, he shook his head, took his leave and walked out the shrine. At the very door he turned around and confronted the inquisitors one last time. "You sure follow the bible to the letter, brother Bonnet. However, shouldn't these rules apply to your own men?

Upon stares filled with animosity, he explained. "A inquisitor working with a witch. Even if it's a rumor, it's worth to investigate, don't you agree? Besides, the way Julien could disclose hidden intentions and thoughts, to the point of accusing people of witchcraft just by staring at them is nothing less than unnatural. Now, if you excuse me, I feel like joining the mass on the other side of the wall and ask our holy father for strength and wisdom. I'm certain we will need his mercy and support in the days to come"

Once Louis left, the mood in the room became darker. "The nerve of some low-rank priests from the wilds! Not only to put in doubt the integrity and devotion of brother Julien, but also to doubt the work of God on his gifted eyes!"

"Agreed, brother! Were not for him and his sixth sense, Rouen and Paris would be infested by now by witches and ghouls hiding in plain sight as pious rodents"

Patrick kept silence during these rounds of eulogies, brooding over one detail his contractors were leaving aside. "Why didn't Julien told me about that book?"

A while later, in the poorest quarter of Rouen, the one infested with rodents and stray animals, Monterey Jack knocked at the door of a mercer shop, which was strangely closed at that hour of the day. "Hello, anybody there?"

"Lord Jack!" A croaky voice answered from inside. "Oh joyful day!" Come in, come in!"

As soon as he walked into the store, Monterey was greeted by Bernard D'Allure, a brown, short and plump mouse dressed in plain brown coat and white shirt. "It is you indeed! You have returned!"

"Of course I did, monsieur D'Allure!" The knight twirled his moustache and assumed a proud heroic stance. "Why wouldn't the mightiest mouse of all Scotland return home alive and victorious?"

"Why, my lord?" Because of the blonde witch of Saint Pierre!" The plump merchant trembled at the mention of these last five words. "The whole country doesn't stop talking about her!"

Then, he leaned and whispered to Monterey's ear. "Musketeers returning from the field also called you a traitor, fleeing with the witch and her companions and spending some nights with them in the depths of the forests"

The knight gasped outraged. "Me? Nonsense! I didn't 'flee' with them. I merely followed them for a day or two, always keeping enough distance as to not taint myself with their foul traits and behaviors. I promise you, my reputation as a virtuous hero is safe and as clean as always"

"What a relief! I knew these words were just baseless gossip!"

Suddenly, Monterey's face grew serious. "Has… Has your daughter heed attention to these rumors about me?"

"Desiree? Couldn't say, she's been away for days on a business travel"

"Oh excellent" Monterey let out a sigh of relief. "And when will my fair maiden come back home?"

"Couldn't say either" The old mouse shrugged as he invited his guest to sit at the table. "She rarely consults me about business and dealings anymore. I would protest, but Desiree keeps coming back home with bags of gold on one paw and ancient treasures in the other paw. She's got an eye for riches, that girl. A real D'Allure merchant!"

Bernard poured some fine belgian wine on a pair of wooden cups and shared one to Monterey. The Scottish mouse drank it, fidgeted with the cup some seconds, then placed it on the table again. All of this done with his mood turning pensive, wondering if her beloved Desiree would be satisfied enough with a quiet life in Scotland, once they got married. Scotland, where the land is not as rich or filled with business opportunities as Normandy. He also wondered, this time biting his lips, if choosing Desiree's approval over Tammy's wellbeing had been the right thing to do. Now, he could only hope the squirrel teenager had found a safe place to hide.

The troubled knight got ahold of the wine bottle and, to the amused expression of his future father-in-law, emptied it in a single gulp.


	6. Chapter 6 - To Paris!

**Chapter 6 – To Paris!**

Tammy couldn't tell how many hours she had spent in the secluded darkness of her cell. She had lost by now any notion of time. She didn't feel sleepy, though, so she ventured it wasn't nighttime yet out there. Or was it? Truth is, she had cried to sleep a while ago, as now bits of dreams tainted with anguish and distress came back to her.

Secluded in absolute darkness, as she couldn't tell any difference between closed eyes and open eyes. She had also suffered a panic attack, for she had awoken with the thought of being dead, or worse, buried alive. In fact, the only way she could snap out of that fantasy and declare herself alive was to relish on the pain from each scratch and bruise in her body. As result, she hadn't dared to cast cure spells on herself yet.

She was secluded in absolute silence, as she hadn't heard any noise beyond her own breaths in many hours. There was nobody with her in the cell or even on the other side of the walls. No words from her friends to comfort her. She could only hope the reason behind the lack of noises was that the wardens had locked her friends away from each other to avoid any second escape attempt.

Not long after the girl had succumbed to sleep again, noises of heavy footsteps pierced through the silence, followed by loud sudden creaks when the door swung open with fury and let in blinding torches lights.

"Stand up, little one" A voice Tammy recognized as Arnold's commanded. "Time to move".

"Where are you taking me?" She asked while raising her paws to protect the eyes.

"To the king, of course! Everybody is already there"

"Everybody?" Her voice almost broke out of renewed hope. "My friends as well?"

"Everybody! Oh, but I almost forgot. I got to take you there tied up"

The teenager squirrel was guided from the dungeons all the way up to the upper lever of the keep. On her way there she was able to notice a huge amount of tapestries and ornaments in urgent need of cleaning and washing. The corridors smelled unpleasantly and the stairs were so dusty they held deep pawprints of people who had walked by before. In general, the keep of Stone Coffer was in a most dire state of decay.

"Ugh!" Tammy wrinkled her nose. "You could hire some maids to clean this place up!"

"Yeah, well…" The brute rat looked around. "king Capone says cleaning is a waste of time and money, since everything gets dirty again in a couple of nights. Besides, he doesn't want to be compared with the previous king, who was too tidy of a squirrel"

"Huh? The previous king was a squirrel? What was his name again?"

"Captain Olivier, I think? Makes you wonder, how can somebody be a captain and a king at the same time? Anyway, I never met him in person. He died in Paris. Then we invaded, killed everyone who stood on your way and claimed the keep, all in the name of our king Capone"

However, upon stepping on a piece of rotten food, Arnold couldn't help but wrinkle his nose as well. "Huh, perhaps we should have let the keep's chamberlain live"

Some minutes later, they arrived at the throne room carved in stone. Filthy and smelly like the rest of the place. The former innkeeper's hosting senses jumped with alarm at the sight of food plates laying all around the floor; ripped banners with more pawprints hanging out from the walls by mere threads; even blood stains sprayed behind the throne. The poor girl had to spend her whole force of will to overcome the urge to vomit.

On the other side, the brutish rat had told the truth when he said everybody was there. The room was crowded with thieves, mercenaries and other shady folks. Even that horrible mockingbird was there perched over a destroyed statue. Foxglove, Dale and Gadget were at the foot of the throne: knelt, tied and flanked by armed rodents. Desiree D'allure was there as well, at the right side of the throne, giving everyone around flirtatious glances while fidgeting with the edge of her favorite knife. At her side, and trying hard not to show any hint of nervousness, was a vole dressed in a luxurious scarlet robe and black cape.

"A inquisitor here?" The cleric girl stopped awestruck. A push on the back was necessary to bring her back to reality. As result, she fell heavily on her knees next to her friends.

As she raised her eyes, found that Rat Capone was just arriving from his own quarters upstairs, then sat on the throne and looked around with a condescending grin from ear to ear. Indeed, He was feeling especially proud of himself tonight, being able to look past his desire to keep the female prisoners as a private harem, like these kings from middle east used to do. No, this time he was determined to act as regal and divine as the human king of France: Just focusing on the monetary value of these females, who by fate's hand had appeared at his doors, and pretending from them nothing else.

Once the last of the valuable prisoners was settled and secured for display in front of the throne, the rat king addressed the sweaty vole. "See, monsieur inquisitor? I've got the three bounties you were looking for, alive and in a good shape. Well, if only we had to take some measures to avoid another unpleasant escape attempt"

The king was telling the truth, as they had Gadget gagged and her paws inside a pair of old and rusty iron gauntlets, which didn't allow for any finger motion. The silk coat, her father's heirloom, had been taken away, which left her wearing only her long black silk robe and sash.

"So, I've fulfilled my part of the deal, monsieur Bonnet. Heck, even their minstrel companion is here. However, I don't see any bags of gold with you and that is a problem"

The atmosphere of the place tensed up, as all the eyes of the court turned to the unarmed vole inquisitor. These eyes that had become addicted to the otherworldly glitter of gold nuggets and were eager to kill for the mere sight of it.

That was other reason Capone decided to part with these prisoners: the greed of his subjects, which he had learned to keep satisfied to a certain extent.

"Yes, about the rewards…" Bonnet the inquisitor gulped down. "Well you see, Rouen inquisition office didn't issue the bounties, so we are not required to pay them from our coffers"

Many around gasped and, after a moment of processing what the vole had just said, a furious Capone smashed his clenched paw against the throne and jumped straight. "What do you mean you won't pay? Aren't these the witches you are looking for?"

The vole felt like shrinking. "Yes, they are, they are! I get this whole situation is confusing, your grace, even for us at Rouen! Just today we learned Paris inquisition office had been spreading bounties all over the region without consulting with us first. We - We had no need for bounties! We were handling the problem successfully with the local garrison's support. Now, if you want to claim the rewards… huh… I'm afraid you must take the prisoners to Paris"

"To Paris!? Are you kidding me?"

"You are not the only aggravated party here, your grace! We were ready to put one of this group, which we captured ourselves, on public trail and execution tomorrow. Now… now we are debating between proceeding forward or surrender him to Paris"

These words were received with alarm by Tammy and her companions. "Who? Who are you talking about!?" The cleric asked alarmed.

"Chip Maplewood, of course. The fallen ranger of Maulevrier"

Dale squirmed, trying to slip out of his shackles. "Hey you, don't you dare put your fanatic paws on my friend! He is innocent! Hum… we are all innocent"

King Capone rubbed his temples, disappointed with these turns of events. He sunk on his throne again and threw a rabid killing stare to Bonett. "Let me, let me get this straight. We need to take these bounties to the inquisitors in Paris if we want to receive any gold, is that correct?"

"Yes, yes… that's correct. High priest Lawrence Meunier is in charge there, he will…"

"Foutre!" The king interrupted Bonnet with a curse word in french, then turned to his most trusted mercenary. "Desireé, didn't you told me you desired to leave for Paris tomorrow morning?"

"Oui, my king" She nodded courteously. "A family matter demand me to arrive there as soon as possible"

Her companions, a group of scavengers mixed among the gathered crowd of thieves and cutthroats, grinned in complicity. The real reason for their travel was still secure.

"Oh, indeed you will go!" The king rubbed his paws together, and the dream of thousands of golden nuggets flashed in front of him again. "Fortune smiles on both you and me, inquisitor. Desiree D'Allure is my most trusted advisor. She will take my bounties to Paris and collect the reward for me"

A wry smile from the trusted advisor, together with a plain nod, gave the king a signal of agreement. Her tense body, however, told everybody else in the room she had just accepted the command with reluctance.

Bonnet, meanwhile, felt satisfied enough. "All right!" He clapped his paws together. "I believe it's all settled then. If your grace allows it, I'll take my leave. Where is the dove stable? I need to go back to Rouen at once to report the good news"

"Actually, I don't allow you to leave"

"Huh, what?"

At his command, Capone's guards surrounded the flummoxed vole. "Please, I insist you stay here on my keep for some days" Capone ordered with a wolfish grin. "Once Desiree comes back with the gold from your organization, you will be free to go"

All color drained from the inquisitor's fur as his paws were held and tied together. "Wait, wait! Am I being taken hostage?"

"Hostage? Such a strong word, inquisitor! Think of yourself more as an insurance. A triumph card in case this priest Lawrence you mentioned intends to play the same game as you and tell my men to go to Rome itself to collect the reward!"

"No! Let me go at once, I order you!"

"Ugh! Arnold, take our guest to the dungeon. Desiree, I leave the prisoners on your capable paws. I'm sure everybody here will wait eagerly for your return. Isn't that so, comrades?"

Wild shouts of approval reverberated across the throne room. So many thieves were excited about this new adventure and the promise of gold at the end that only one or two noticed the burly figure of Arnold leaving the room with Bonnet – still resisting - on tow.

The king had just called for another round of wine to celebrate when Pietro slipped like a shadow and whispered some words at the ear of Desiree. Words that were received with an arching brow. The female then stepped forward and called for everyone to shut up. "Stop, stop! King Capone, what about this pink bat? She isn't one of the wanted criminals"

"Huh? Is not? Let me see these warrants again"

Just as the rat went through the bunch of bounty notices, both Foxglove and Dale looked at each other with growing fear.

"Blow me down, you are right!" Capone's eyes set on the tied bat and glowed with an indisputable spark of lust. "And to think we were just going to send her away! No, my girl… you will be better here, in my castle, at my side"

Foxglove froze and shut her eyes close as Capone walked towards her with the intention to touch her face. "Please, no…" The bat shivered.

Dale, on the other hand, got berserk and fought off the restraining chains with all his strength. "Don't you dare touch her, you filthy rat!"

But for Capone, such threats were more like an invitation to continue. "Like this, you mean?" He said as he ran his paw from Foxglove's cheek down to her neck, and ended up tearing her shirt to expose her bare shoulder.

"You monster, I'll kill you!" The chipmunk tried to reach him again and again, every time barely restrained by the guards.

The crowd around fell in silence – every second more disgusted by the scene unraveling in front of them. The shivering fear of the girl, the screams of her boyfriend and the desperate efforts of their friends to get rid of the chains and help somehow. How different this Capone was, as opposed to the late Olivier and his chivalrous mannerisms which, more often than not, provoked embarrassed smiles on his comrades. With these memories still fresh, more than a pair of thieves found themselves reaching for the pommels of their knives.

Fortunately, the sharp Desiree read the atmosphere and reacted by addressing the king with her best and most persuasive voice. "My king, I believe we can still get a profit out of this cutie bat"

Capone's ears perked up while the eyes kept devouring Foxglove's figure. "A profit?"

"Of course!" She continued. "By taking advantage of the animosity between the church and the bat clans of our forests. Chiropters have such a bad reputation, I'm sure they will pay dearly for one who was involved in the events of Saint Pierre. It suits the church's narrative to the letter"

The rat simply flashed at her a cold smile of disagreement, but Desiree still had one card left to play. "That means more gold for us"

Now truly irked, Capone opened the mouth to order his advisor to shut up. However, the command was cut short by an echo that came from the crowd: "More gold for us!"

And soon the whispers among the gathered thieves became cries of support. "More gold for us! More gold for us!"

Despite his obvious intellectual flaws, the king knew better than to jeopardize the level of approval he received from a population of greedy criminals. As result, grinding his teeth, he took his paw off the young bat and walked as regal as he could back to his throne, if only to signal he was still in charge.

"As I was saying" He spoke calmly, hiding his true feelings. "Desiree, take this foul bat with you to Paris. Make sure you get a good price for her, understood?"

The female mercenary nodded and bowed down with a flourish of her paw. "Your wish is my command, your grace"

And so, the audience came to an end. Capone walked away to his quarters as fast as he could. His face a mask of bitter disappointment. Tammy, Gadget, Foxglove and a still irate Dale were dragged out to the mainyard to sit and wait while the expedition got assembled. At a certain moment, Desiree walked by the chipmunk and playfully whispered to his ear: "Don't forget, you owe me one"


	7. Chapter 7 - Eyes on fire

**Chapter 7 – Eyes on fire**

The sun rose in the east again, and the first morning light found Chip Maplewood crouched tied to a pole in the gardens of Rouen's cathedral, struggling to come back to his senses after enduring a cruel beating. The perpetrators, one of them a relative of the slain Colombe, were now catching their breath while standing guard on him. Chip's second day of captivity had just started.

Amid the pain, something caught his innate curiosity. He leaned back against the pole and glanced -despite one swollen eye- at the distance, where he noticed a gathering of musketeers was on course. He even made the bulky figure of Monterey Jack among the crowd. Stings of resentment clouded the ranger's face for mere moments, soon replaced by the overwhelming admission of guilt. "No, I can't blame him" He sourly reprimanded himself. "Were not for him and Zipper, who knows how many more I could have murdered in cold blood"

The screams tainted in red of those four lives he took made him grimace again.

Moments later, Captain Patrick Lefevre came into sight - along with some clergymice who flanked him as he ordered the soldiers to stand and pay attention. Unfortunately, the wind didn't help Chip and the lizard's speech was carried away from him. The ranger could only tell, by observing the way many musketeer's tails dropped in unison, that their new orders were not very pleasant to hear.

The briefing ended, and the assembled musketeers marched back to the crevices at the base of the cathedral's walls. Monterey Jack was seen starting out beside the lizard captain and engaging in an argument of sorts. Always outspoken, the Scottish mouse soon captured the attention of everybody around.

Everybody, except for a mouse in humble robes who instead walked away from the crowd and towards the tied ranger and his overzealous watchmen.

"Halt!" The gerbil watchman raised his arm. "I'm sorry, your grace, but we have orders not to allow anyone near this prisoner"

"I'm well aware, thanks" Louis La Fountaine nodded calmly, then took some pieces of butter bread out from his pockets. "But I can't just turn my back at a rodent in need, no matter how horrible his sins are. Could you at least let me feed him? As my daily act of Christian mercy?"

The guards look at each other for a heartbeat and then, letting out a sigh, stepped aside. "To feed him, you say? Sure" The gerbil then lidded his eyes upset. "That save us the trouble to feed him ourselves. This chipmunk killed my cousin! I can't wait for him to burn at the stake!"

Louis walked to the pole only to find the fallen ranger in a sorry state, with bruises all over his body and a swollen right eye. "Good lord! What have they done?" I'm sorry I couldn't come earlier to stop them!"

"Nothing happened here that I didn't deserve" Chip suddenly declared, avoiding the priest's gaze. "I killed his cousin, his name was Colombe. I murdered him and another three musketeers on that night. I'm a monster…"

The good priest leaned closer and offered a sympathetic sad smile. "My dear Chip, Lately I've been surrounded by many who have walked over the words of the fifth commandment or worse, twist them for their nefarious schemes. You are not one of them, believe me"

"Thou… shall not kill?" Chip stuttered these words with a quivering chin, while vivid images of blood and screams, of flashing blades and laughter danced in his mind. "Yes I am. I remember killing them with a smile on my face. Had not been stopped, I could have killed even more people in that forest. I'm so sorry, Louis" He finally gazed up at his old friend. "I wasn't able to control myself. I wasn't able to control the blades. I went… berserk"

"Berserk?" Louis arched his brow at the mention of that foreign word. "Do you even know where that word comes from and what does it mean? Bah, silly question! Of course you know. You are ten times smarter than anyone around here. My point is, a true norse berserk warrior of old would never regret the evil deeds he indulged on while possessed. You, on the other hand, are aching just by the thought of what you did and that, my friend, is a good sign. It means there is still hope for redemption"

"I'm already waiting for redemption, Louis" The chipmunk cut him short. "That's why I was brought here... I will die today at the stake. I can only hope I will be forgiven someday by my parents, my brothers… my friends"

"Never confuse death with redemption!" The priest replied incensed, then forced a piece of bread into the wailing Chipmunk's mouth. He did so as much as a way to snap him out of his fantasies as well as excuse to lean even closer. "Chew it slowly, don't swallow it all at once" He said in a lower voice. "Now listen…Tammy and the others, they are in great danger!"

With these four words, an old flame came to life inside of Chip again, one that had been drowned in a sea of shame and regret. _"My friends… in danger… Tammy? Gadget? Dale and Foxy?"_ With each recalled name, his heartbeats accelerated and his expression adopted a more focused gaze. Louis witnessed this with some relief, witnessed his friend finally coming back from the world of the dead.

Before continuing, the old mouse gave a brief over-the-shoulder glance at the guards. They were looking back at him impatiently. "Almost done here!" He shouted at them with a grin. "A quick prayer for his soul and I'll be on my way"

Louis then entwined his paws together and knelt properly in front of the ranger. However, instead of a prayer, he gave an explanation in whispers. "They were captured and sold to the inquisition by the thief king of Stone Coffer. Today they are being escorted to Paris, to the inquisitorial headquarters. You know very well what will happen once they get there"

Suddenly, dramatically, he grabbed his friend by the little ears. In a heartbeat, he pulled him forward, nose to nose and eye to eye. "By the grace of God" Louis declared solemnly. "I acknowledge your sin and your resolution not to sin again. Now I assign you penance: Go save your friends. Do not come back to me without them at your side!"

Louis then draw the sign of the cross on the awestruck chipmunk's chest. Once done, he stood up and marched away in a calm, collected manner.

The gerbil couldn't help but smirk the moment the old priest passed by him. "What was that? For a moment, I thought you were going to kiss him on the mouth, your grace"

"Nothing so preposterous" Louis said drily, not giving him a second glance. "I was just looking for hints of fire in his eyes"

"Fire in his eyes?"

Both rodent guards turned back to the prisoner and felt shivers running down their bodies. Chip Maplewood was now staring right back at them with a steely gaze.

Time went by fast. At noon, the prisoner witnessed a large army of mice musketeers in black and white uniforms – probably the whole of Rouen's garrison - marching out in a new mission. By the amount of equipment on their backpacks he deduced the soldiers would spend many days away in the wilderness. And by their gloomy expressions, he concluded they were not looking forward to the road ahead. But the most miserable among seemed to be Monterey Jack, who couldn't stop to take glances over the shoulder at the gathered families who came to say goodbye to their relatives enlisted in Patrick Lefevre's battalion.

As expected, the blue lizard himself gave Chip a last vengeful stare as he passed by. The black nosed chipmunk, in return, flashed at him a mischievous grin and a defiant stare. Patrick blinked, hissed menacingly and walked back to his place at the front of the troops.

After that curious exchange and once the soldiers were out of sight, things settled down in those gardens. Chip spent the rest of the day undisturbed and in deep silence. He spoke no words, made no complains, annoyed nobody. He just sat there with the paws tied to the pole… sat there and waited.

Night came, it covered Rouen with a cold and starry veil. Not long afterwards, the cathedral's bells called everyone for the evening mass. The bells also marked the time for the prisoner to be taken back to the cellars and sure enough, a pair of soldiers arrived to take him in: Monterey Jack and Zipper.

"Oi there, mates!" The paladin knight, dressed in bright wide cuirass completed with a right forearm guard and iron gauntlets, his huge greatsword strapped at his back, send a crisply salute to the now sitting wardens as he stepped out from the shadows. Zipper, the scout in red leather armor and black hood, was perched on his shoulder visible wore out.

"The mercenaries? Didn't you leave with Captain Patrick this morning?"

"Aye we did" Monterey placed his paws on the wide waist and made an effort to explain the situation, even though he didn't appear to be in the mood. "We accompanied him and the troops for a good chunk o' the day, comfortably hidden in a hay cart, when suddenly ol' cap'n ordered me an' Zip to come back here and watch over this fallen ranger all nite long" He then shrugged quite upset. "Only God knows why"

The second guard, a long-nosed grey field mouse, stood and smirked amused. "Oh, I can tell why captain Lefevre changed his mind and commanded you to come back here. You cannot go and rescue an inquisitor from a city of thieves while keeping an eye at the sellswords who got involved with that wretched blonde witch just three days before"

The Scottish knight tensed up in response to that bold declaration. Still, the field mouse pressed on. "You also caused a scene earlier today at the briefing, didn't you?"

"None o' your business, mate!"

"Just saying" The musketeer mouse lidded his eyes. "Only you mercenaries would dare to raise your voices at our commander. Patrick Lefevre is a hero for us Rouen citizens! And you, you betrayed him on that night of horror. Then, lo and behold, you betrayed this chipmunk the very next morning. You just change sides as you see convenient!"

"Shut yer gob, laddie! Or even better, defend yourself!" The bulky knight shouted as he reached for the hilt of his cheese cutter.

Zipper quickly got himself between the two arguing rodents. "Hey, hey! Let's not be hasty here!"

The gerbil guard also came, grabbed his comrade by the shoulder and made him step back one stride. "Settle down, Guillard! It's not worth it" Then, he added with a whisper. "For God's sake, take a look at that human knife he carries! It could cut you in half with one swing"

"Please forgive my partner, Sir Monterey" Corporal Aubin, the gerbil warden, quickly apologized with a slight bow. "It's been a long day here in the gardens. Please, the prisoner is all yours. You may take him to the dungeons now"

"Right, right..." Monterey relaxed his stance and stepped aside, allowing the two musketeers to walk past him. He couldn't help but square his shoulders and crack his knuckles just as the pair disappeared inside a crevice. "What do they even know? They weren't there with us. They weren't… pushed into the middle of that nightmare like we were"

The fly patted his friend on the head sympathetically. "Let it go, Monty. We still have orders to complete, remember?"

Both mercenaries then turned towards the chipmunk prisoner, who was sit there with a sour look on his face.

"So we meet again, Chipper" Said the knight twisting his mustache as he walked closer. The prisoner just cocked his head right and kept the same mute and defiant mask. "Humpf! Still mad at me, are ye?"

While his Scottish partner worked on the chains behind the pole, Zipper flew by and met Chip eye to eye, his paw rubbing the tilt of his needle. "We'll take you back to your cell. Do not try anything, understood?"

Again, nothing but contempt on the chipmunk's face. The way the black eyes squinted made the small scout suddenly reconsider releasing him from the shackles, even for a brief moment.

But Chip attempted nothing in the few seconds his arms were free. Monterey Jack put on the shackles again on his wrists and prompted him to start walking. The prisoner stumbled the first few strides, his legs numb after spending all the day sitting there like a vegetable. His escort had to grab him by the shoulder to avoid any embarrassing scene. And even then, the ranger didn't whisper a single word of gratitude.

"I understand you, lad. I really do" Monterey declared as he guided the ranger through the rodent-sized corridors of the cathedral. "One day you are a law enforcer living in your idyllic little town in the woods; the next day you are a heretic sentenced to death by the most vicious and unmerciful organization of our times" Here he shook the head and sighed. "Females really have a way to complicate our lives, don't they?"

Chip and Zipper couldn't help but throw puzzled looks back at the big mustachioed mouse.

"I'm talking about your blonde witch, Gadget!" He quickly explained himself. "You know, the twin sister that didn't try to kill us. Cute lass, ain't she? You spent the whole night protecting her from harm, even though she seemed resourceful enough. A walking bag of tricks, that missy. And what did you get at the end for yer troubles, besides a single kiss? The despise of the 'ole kingdom and a ticket to the stake, amarite?"

The shackled chipmunk, now visibly enraged, bared his fangs at the mouthful knight. This one just smirked smugly and prompted him to keep walking.

Some minutes later, they arrived at the dungeons. "Here we are" Zipper pointed to the cell at the end of the corridor. Then added a quiet "At last" under his breath.

Monterey gave a mild push to Chip, and made him stumble a pair of steps into the dark moist cell. Despite the glare he received, he felt like talking again. "Has anyone told you that yer witch was captured again, together with wee lass Tammy?"

Oddly, Chip didn't utter a single gasp of surprise. Instead, he slumped down against the wall, staring at Monterey with scorn, as if daring him to talk ill about his beloved friends.

"Aye, I bet those guards already told ye the whole tale". He ventured. "They are on their way to Paris at his mere moment, escorted by a vile collection of thieves from Stone coffer – The place you told us to run and hide in" Monterey's expression turned sour and vengeful. "So in a sense, their grim fate is all your fault"

Chip wanted to yell back at him, he really did. However, and with a huge amount of self-control, he managed to keep his mouth closed.

"Monty!" The small fly buzzed.

"Keep the head, ye! I only wanted to give our former friend something to ponder on tonight". Monterrey scoffed at the whole situation, slammed the door shut and walked towards a nearby chair. "Blimey! What's wrong with this chipmunk?"

"Give it a rest, Monty, these outbursts aren't good for your health"

"Aye, aye" The bulky knight fell heavily on the chair, which protested with a loud creak. "Let's just begin our watch" He said running his paw over the face up and down. "Whatever it takes to regain our dear cap'n's trust again"

"And our due payment" The fly added with a slight, hopeful smile.

Barely one hour later, Monterey's snores were resounding all over the pitch-black prison corridors. Zipper couldn't blame him, that had been a most exhausting day for both mercenaries. For everyone in the garrison, he concluded as he imagined the battalion camping in the middle of the forest at that same moment. Still, Monterey and him had their own mission to fulfill in the prison, and he would make sure they pass it with flying colors even if it was as boring as to watch grass grow.

"At least grass sways with the wind from time to time" Zipper complained inwardly while he kept his undivided attention to the locked cell door barely visible in that darkened rodent tunnel. There, practically alone and replaying memories of the events of the previous days, the little scout slowly reached a difficult decision: He had to apologize now or never.

He lifted up and, as quietly as he could, fluttered all the way to the heavy wooden door. "Chip, are you awake?" He buzzed, then trembled when another loud snore echoed all over the walls. "Silly me. Of course you are awake"

"Listen" He pleaded apologetically once everything went silent again. "You have to forgive Monterey for what he said earlier. The news about Tammy's capture left him cold and heartbroken. I'm sure you know he cares a lot about her but… he has a female in his life complicating everything: Desireé D'Allure, a merchant he plans to ask for marriage as soon as she returns to Rouen. Please understand, Monterey tries to keep an impeccable reputation as a brave hero around her and her parents. The more we get involved with you and your friends, not to mention to raise our swords against the church, the more chances for Monterey to be rejected by Desiree and her family. I can tell my friend is angry because he was forced to choose between leaving to help Tammy again or stay and enjoy his own personal happiness. Now he has to live with that choice the rest of his life. I guess he blames you for that, because you promised Tammy she would find shelter in Stone coffer"

Zipper sighed, shook his head and then continued. "If it helps, I believe your plan to hide there was a solid one. A place where the inquisition has no influence, and from where you could buy passage to other lands. Actually, we weren't told details about how Tammy and the others were caught but you shouldn't blame yourself about things out of your control, get it?"

Suddenly, the sound of a door unlocking was heard in the darkness. "Huh?"

"Oh, I get it, Zipper!" Chip happily commented, a second before opening his cell and jumping at the fly with his shirt spread as a net. "And now I got you!"

"What? No, wait!"

The naked chipmunk then tossed his catch into the cell and hurriedly locked the door again. "Ugh, it feels so good to talk again, after spending an entire day biting a lockpick!"

"Stop! The fly buzzed desperately. "You are under arrest!"

"Sorry Zip, but I won't be coming back here any longer. I'm leaving for Paris tonight, you see?"

The fly fell in silence for a moment, perhaps awestruck by what he had just heard. In any case, Chip took advantage of these seconds to walk silently past the stirring form of Monterey Jack. By the way his warden yawned, the black-nosed chipmunk realized he had just seconds left before the alarm was raised.

"Monty! Wake up!" The scout used all his strength to smash Chip's unlocked shackles against the door, thus causing a loud metallic sound.

The big mouse, in result, awoke with a jump that sent him to the ground. "Blimey! What just… Zipper?"

"Monty! I'm here, Chip has escaped!"

Struck with disbelief, Monterey ran and opened wide the cell's door, only to witness his friend darting out over the shoulder. "It cannot be!"

"A lockpick! He held a lockpick in his mouth all this time!"

It took Monterey a long second to digest what had just happened, and the boiling outrage he felt explode in a loud guttural roar. "Blasted be that trickster!"

Chip made his way hiding in the shadows of the narrow passages that connected the dungeons with the living quarters and barracks. Just as expected, he found almost no soldiers guarding the place. The few of them were promptly knocked out by the escaping prisoner. He did so swiftly and stealthily, as to not produce any sound beyond the necessary. In fact, the only sound he kept hearing was that of the buzzing wings of Zipper, who was getting closer to him by the second.

After all, the cunning scout surely knew there was only one direction Chip would want to run to. The doors that led to the cathedral's garden. Chip reasoned he was being too predictable.

He changed course and, instead of heading right to the gardens, shadow-walked to the inner living quarters built beneath the thick walls of the cathedral. Unfortunately, by the time he arrived there, the alarm had spread and many resident inquisitors were out of their dormitories. Low rank Inquisitors and acolytes wandering around the corridors and halls and adding to the general commotion. Again Chip deviated to another route.

The ranger's run through the maze of obscured rodent-sized hallways brought him to the doors of a room that emanated an ominous feeling, as if someone inside was waiting for him. The ranger stepped out of the shadows and, quite intrigued, quite mesmerized, went in.

It was an armory. One almost empty. The ranger walked in and smiled at the sight of a worn-out shirt laying forgotten. "I probably reached the garrison's quarters" He concluded as he grabbed and put that shirt on.

 _"_ _You are correct"_ A too-familiar voice made his fur stand on edge. Even more because the words were spoken directly to his mind. "And every one of them is already dead"

Sucking his breath in, the ranger turned and glanced at the corner of the room, where a pair of purple longswords were leaning against the wall. "No…"

 _"_ _You've come again, yes?"_ The voice of Munnin whispered.

 _"_ _And you will wield us again, yes?"_ Huggin added.

 _"_ _You cannot save your friends without us, yes?"_

 _"_ _You will fail in Paris without us, yes…"_

"No, no!" Chip slammed his back against the door, hiding his face with the palms. "That won't happen! Get out of my head!"

 _"_ _It won't happen? What make your friends different than any other victim of the bloodthirsty inquisition?"_

"They have me!" The ranger glared mad throughout his fingers. "I swear I'll save them without you!"

 _"_ _Right, right… have it your way, hero!"_ The raven's voice relinquished. _"Leave us here to rot. You are free to go to Paris and rescue your friends from armies of thieves, musketeers and inquisitors. We wish you the best of luck. However, have you forgotten what will happen to Gadget Hackwrench eventually?"_

Just like that, Chip's will broke. Defeated by a single image of the fate that awaited his beloved friend. A sense of futility made him slump down on the floor, for he finally remembered there was a bigger threat to the mouse girl than whatever the inquisition had planned for her. A threat that no earthly blade could ever hope to cut down. Slowly, inexorably, he came to terms with what he had to do. "Gadget… I…"

Guided by the norse ravens, the purple blades firmly strapped at his waist, Chip Maplewood reached and bolted through the rodent doors that give way to the cathedral's outer yard. Soon, the windy starry night of Rouen welcomed him. Overcome with joy, he stopped on his tracks, closed the eyes and let the feeling of freedom wash over him. No more shackles, no more beatings, and no more darkened cells and corridors. Only the human city and open skies ahead of him.

 _"_ _Hey, haven't you notice you aren't alone?"_

"Huh?"

Out of the corner of the eye the ranger witnessed an enormous blade slashing at him in a sideways motion. The fugitive chipmunk barely had time to unsheathe his magic swords backwards and clash them against the sudden, traitorous attack. However, couldn't help but be sent flying many steps away due to the sheer force of the blow. "Whoaaa!"

"Hmpf!" The owner of the towering blade stood straight and grinned wolfishly. "Bloody chipmunks and yer reflexes. I reckon ye ough'ta be split in two by now"

"Monterey!" The ranger exclaimed agape watching the figure of the full armored mouse towering over him.

"Aye, Chip that's me" The mustachioed mouse rested his blade over his thick shoulder guard. "And ye are nothing but a dumb stubborn… fugitive!" With each word the knight's rage boiled up. Once he finished his sentence, charged at the ranger with a series of furious death-promising swings.

 _"_ _This big guy is out to kill you!"_ Munnin stated as Chip dodged to one side.

 _"_ _Kill him first!"_ A merciless Huggin commanded, and quickly found an opening in the enraged paladin's stances. A small window of opportunity - one breath wide- that the raven was set to capitalize from. Right after Monterey ended one of his powerful strikes and right before he dragged the greatsword forward again, the raven forced Chip to jump in and to make a cut in the giant mouse's forearm, on the exact place where the plate joins with the elbow guard. The otherworldly raven granted his chipmunk host a jolt of excitement as reward for a first successful counter strike.

Monterey staggered one step back as the sharp edge of the purple blade cut his skin. The growl he made seemed to please Chip even more, to the point of lick his lips with a wild expression on his eyes.

The pain didn't deter the knight one bit, though, and the next second he was again on the offensive, swinging his two-handed sword left and right and giving the escaped prisoner no quarter, no space to breath and no more openings to strike at.

Meanwhile, to the battlefield arrived high inquisitor Corentin, flanked by Zipper, Aubin and Guillard. Soon more clergymice and common rodent citizens joined them. All of them stunned by the duel unfolding before their eyes, the clash of dual longswords against a scottish greatsword that sent away sparks and flickers of purple feathers. And even more breathtaking to watch, the flaming determined eyes of both opponents.

"Monty!" The scout fly buzzed filled with dread, but the mustachioed mouse didn't even glance back at him. His sight –and hate- was fixed on the chipmunk in front of him.

"Bloody chipmunk!" The paladin growled as his sword met the ranger's once again. "Ye haf' any idea why I ran to guard these doors, so far away from the gardens?"

That puzzling question made a dent on the spell Chip was sunken into. He had come to know Monterey fairly well on these past days and couldn't believe, not for even one second, that cowardice was the right answer. "Why?" He asked, blocking another powerful and humming blow making use of all of his strength.

The ravens, on the other hand, were not pleased by the sudden inquisitiveness of their own champion. _"Who cares why!? He is just stalling for time! Old geezer wants to catch his breath, finish him now!"_

Still, Chip's curiosity overcame the commands and the hunger for blood. "Why!?" he demanded, barely refraining himself to jump blindly at the mouse's throat.

"Because I swore to kill you!" Came the answer together with a vertical slash that crushed the ground next to the chipmunk. "I gave my word to the church and to Captain Patrick!"

"Ugh" The startled chipmunk flinched, covering his eyes from the debris. "Listen, Monterey! It doesn't have to end like that!"

"It has to, Chipper" Monterey sighed quite gloomy, shifting his body to a hurried defensive stance. "Now if you want to escape this place and save Tammy... You gotta kill me first!"

"Too bad, I swore not to kill anybody ever again"

"Well, that leaves only one way to end this duel, doesn't it?

"No!" The chipmunk shook his head vigorously, then pointed one sword to the street at his back. "Come with me, let's save Tammy together! Deep inside you, you know that's the right thing to do!"

"Ye think I don't want to run to Paris and save her myself?" Monterey raised his voice, not caring anymore if he was heard by inquisitors or musketeers by accident. "I can't! My oath to Patrick sets aside any personal feelings. Duty always comes first!"

Here Chip ran his paw with despair down his face, both out of patience and out of self-control. The whispering voices of the ravens now seemed more reasonable than the mouse standing in front of him. Still he tried one last time. "Nonsense! One can bend the rules for the greater good!"

"And become a snake like you? Forget it!"

"Tammy's life depends on us, you goddamned dolt!" The ranger snapped.

Both opponents again rushed and clashed at each other. Again the sounds and sparks of metal against metal startled the gathered citizens as they witnessed the frantic dance Chip lost himself in. Because the ranger, urged by his own magical swords, sent down a whirlwind of deathly strikes at the paladin's big and armored body. Left and right, up and down, soon their ring was covered in purple feathers. Fear and amazement alike grew with the sight of the possessed ranger coming in with elaborate contortions seen more often in circuses than in a proper martial duel, even twirling upside down on one paw to cut at the legs, all the while displaying baring fangs and a vicious laughter.

But Monterey, always the brawler, defended himself with expertise, using not only his sword, but also his armored arms, shoulders and powerful legs to stop the chipmunk short from inflicting any serious wound. Monterey answered the overkill dance with his own parries and counterattacks. The longer reach of his sword giving him advantage and pressing his opponent to give ground away little by little. More than once, he swatted back his opponent successfully after a successful clash of swords. However, the mad wide eyes of the chipmunk, together with his incredible perseverance and stamina, forced him to shiver and at the same time, smile. True enough, Chip was a good fighter, good enough as to save Tammy someday. If only… if only…

Monterey's face suddenly brightened and, for everybody's surprise, reached forward to catch one of Chip's longswords with the open palm of his left paw. The blade penetrated both flesh and bones and ended up emerging out of the gauntlet. Monterey let go a grunt of pain. However, Chip's own paw was now firmly gripped and squeezed.

"Monty!" Zipper cried covering his eyes.

The ranger of rabid expression growled and attempted to slash the hulking knight's face with his other blade, but the movement was lost the moment his opponent whipped him out and smashed him against the ground.

"Gah!" Chip cried as his head met the solid sidewalk's slab. The impact was so fierce it made him lose one of his fabled longswords.

 _"_ _This is bad! This is bad!"_ His ravens exclaimed alarmed.

But the paladin wasn't done or satisfied yet. He raised and smashed the chipmunk on the sidewalk again, from left and right, over and over. To everybody around, it was like watching a bully kid mistreating a rag doll. After two more rounds of punishment, Monterey raised the dazed and red stained body of the ranger and whispered at him with a victorious grin on his face. "I found a third way"

Monterey dug his heels on the ground and, calling out for all of his strength, twirled together with Chip a full circle, then sent him flying far, far away. If their fight had taken them to the edge of the outer yard and sidewalk, the throw made Chip and his right sword land painfully on the deserted cobblestone street.

An almost deserted cobblestone street. Just as Chip woke up from the concussion and raised his head up, the earth below him started to tremble and the pebbles around him came to life with a frenetic dance. "What…"

 _"_ _Look out!"_

Everything happened in one second or less. A quartet of horses pulling a stagecoach at full speed trampled over Chip leaving behind deafened witnesses and thick clouds of dust.

"Oh my god!" A middle-aged rodent lady exclaimed close to faint. "The chipmunk was killed!"

"Not any chipmunk" A random inquisitor corrected. "But the servant of the witch of Saint Pierre! It's over! Sir Monterey Jack defeated him! Hurrah!"

The common folk around followed the mouse's call and erupted in ardent applauses and congratulatory words that lasted for many, many seconds. At last the people had found some relief, watching as how one of the witches – they didn't know the technical title for Chip would be 'ghoul' – left this world in a most gruesome manner, right under the hooves and wheels of a night stagecoach. For any city rodent, that was as good as an execution as being burned alive.

Once the dust settled down, High priest Corentin gave Aubin and Guillard the unpleasant task to retrieve the fugitive's corpse… or whatever was left of him. Meanwhile, he himself went to Monterey's side, and found his companion Zipper already there, patching up the wounded palm.

"Sir Monterey Jack" The vole saluted him warmly. "An impressive feat! It's a shame captain Lefevre wasn't here to witness your victory against the forces of evil, but be certain that the tale will be heard all over France! Perhaps beyond! You are a true hero!"

"Aye sir" The weary knight saluted with his good paw. "Goodness and justice have prevailed once again. Perhaps we could go inside and celebrate with a generous portion of cheese?"

Zipper couldn't help but chuckle as he tied the bandage steadfastly. "Leave it to me! I'll go and find the tastiest one!"

"High priest Corentin! Sir!" Aubin came to them at full pace and looking quite dismayed.

"What is it, soldier?"

"There is… there is no corpse! There is nothing!"

"What!?"

Corentin, as well as plenty of other rodents who overheard the anguished report, ran to the spot the ranger had last been seen, leaving Zipper and Monterey alone with their thoughts.

"Monty… Do you think…"

"Aye, Zip" Monterey Jack turned to gaze at the strange purple sword Chip had left behind. He gazed and witnessed it fading into nothingness, leaving behind another trail of these little supernatural feathers. "He is alive… and on his way to Paris"


	8. Chapter 8 - Night at the river

**Chapter 8 – Night at the river**

Fifteen men on a dead man's chest

Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!

Drink and the devil had done for the rest

Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!

The mate was fixed by the bosun's pike

Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!

The bosun brained with a marlinspike

Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!

And cookey's throat was marked belike

Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!

It had been gripped by fingers ten;

And there they lay, all good dead men

Like break o'day in a boozing ken. (*)

Fifteen rodent pirates clashed their wooden mugs of rum and sung to the tune of this song. Their captain, none other than Desiree D'allure, led them through the lyrics with energy and a vicious delight. The drunken voices echoed all over the secret rodent compartment in the bowels of the human merchant ship.

Fifteen men of the whole ship's list  
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!  
Dead and be damned and the rest gone whist!  
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!  
The skipper lay with his nob in gore  
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!  
Where the scullion's axe his cheek had shore  
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!  
And the scullion he was stabbed times four  
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!  
And there they lay, and the soggy skies  
Dripped all day long in up-staring eyes  
In murk sunset and foul sunrise. (*)

Their living cargo witnessed the pirate show chained to the floor with a myriad of different feelings. While Tammy and Foxglove cringed at the dreadful words, Dale hummed the chorus swaying his body from left to right. In fact, as the song went in crescendo, more than one 'Yo ho ho' escaped from the captured minstrel's mouth.

For Gadget, tied and gagged as she was, none of what transpired around her was as disheartening as to watch Desiree geared with the magical silk cloak Geegaw Hackwrench had left her as heirloom. Even worse, the cephalopodic guardian hidden in the folds of the cloak was now following the thief's orders blindly, thus proving that its allegiance was bound to the user of the garment more so than the Hackwrench family inherently.

The ship they were hidden in was a river hulk, one twenty meters long and loaded with goods coming all the way from Le Havre. Its human captain was a favorite of Desiree, as he shared the same fascination with trinkets and mementos from faraway lands, as well as the urging desire of venturing onto the immeasurable ocean and leave France and its twisting rivers behind.

Two entire days had passed since Desiree and her band boarded in at one of the many stops the river hulk made on its way through the Seine and the riverside towns. Since they were familiar with the captain and his immutable schedule, the rodent pirates were certain there were left three more days of travel until the gates of Paris appeared for them on the horizon.

The female thief came to the hostage's side, quite drunk and barely capable of keeping balance against the motion of the wooden floor. "Bonjour again, my bounties! She greeted them as she sat next to Tammy with a relaxed and unladylike position. A mug of rum on one paw, a knife on the other one. "So, having a pleasant trip? We are halfway there, you know?"

Well aware of how fickle is the temper a drunken armed criminal, Tammy opted for indulge her captor with a slight nod and an easy smile. "Uhm sure, it's been more pleasant than I thought, all things considered"

"Certainly ma cherie!" Desiree threw her arm around Tammy – the one with the knife- and pulled the squirrel girl closer. "All the best for our bounties, which are on the last travel of their lives!"

Her brazen comment destroyed whatever hope the four companions had left. Their gazes – as well as their spirits - fell to the floor.

"Hey hey! What's with these long faces?" She took another big gulp of rum and patted the squirrel's back with enthusiasm. "Be relieved, that even if your bodies die in a gruesome, slow, typical inquisitorial way, your spirit will live on, on the stuff we stole from you, hahaha!"

Here all rodent pirates at ear's distance broke to laugh.

The ominous mouse then sprang up and walked towards the blonde witch. "Oh, I simply love this magical cloak. I'd read about it in old tomes of witchcraft but to actually have it on me… and to command it, simply delightful!" As if on cue, a pair of tentacles came forth from the dark folds of the silk garment and took hold of their master's wooden mug. "Look, it is so eager to serve! Many could follow its example"

Desiree then glanced at the bound chipmunk of red nose and couldn't help but sigh annoyed. "In your case, dear minstrel, I regret the moment my assistant Pietro put his eyes on that old lute of yours" She rubbed her temples as she said so. "He really should stick to his only talent: stab people in the back"

"And in the guts, and in the heart!" The mouse known as Pietro raised the stolen lute proudly.

"Anyway… its dinner time! Hey old geezer, is supper ready yet?"

"Certainly boss!" Sugar Ray Lizard, the only member of the expedition not affiliated to Desiree's scavengers walked in with a big pot of soup. He then proceeded to release Gadget from the torn piece of her own skirt that these bandits had fastened over her mouth. "Come on young one, you need to eat"

"I told you yesterday and I'll tell you again, careful with that one" Desiree warned. As the blonde witch drank eagerly, she peeked over the pot. "And pry tell me, self-appointed cook for this expedition, what's on the menu for tonight?"

"The same as before, boss. Fish soup"

"Ugh! What's your problem? Don't you know another dish?"

The old lizard shrugged smugly. "I'm afraid I'm a lizard of the sea more than a creature of the forest like yourself, cap'n"

"Sacre bleu!" The female mouse, quite upset, turned away and took a big gulp directly from the bottle of rum. "I'm surrounded by…"

"There is a cooking book inside the cloak"

All eyes around, friends and foes, turned to Gadget. "I, huh, put Tammy's cooking book in my magical cloak for safekeeping"

"Is that true?" Desiree slid her paw into the pocket dimension of the cloak. A mere second later, she retrieved none other than Bethany Lombardi's grimoire, disguised as an innocuous cooking book. "Oh, this one?" The leader of the expedition flipped through of the book, hunger overcoming her by each passing recipe. She then addressed the squirrel teenager. "You really know how to prepare these dishes?"

Tammy, quite perplexed, stammered a bit. "Of course! I know many of these recipes by heart!"

"By heart, huh?" Asked her captor incredulously, while keeping her arm wrapped around the old book of culinary delicacies.

The squirrel hostess quickly corrected herself. "I mean, I still have look at it from time to time lest I end up mixing ingredients, like mustard! Did you know there exist yellow mustard and black mustard? What's up with that?"

"True enough!" Desiree conceded and handed out the grimoire to Tammy. "Now, As captain of this expedition, I hereby appoint you as cook assistant, be proud!"

"Such an important job!" Old Sugar Ray noted.

"Verily! You will help this lizard keep us well fed for the reminder of our trip. So study hard your book tonight, cherie. Tomorrow morning you two will go and find better ingredients for breakfast, better than a smelly fish, anyway. I'm looking forward to it, so do not disappoint me!"

Tammy made her best effort to salute with the paws chained. "At… at your orders captain"

"Aye, captain" Sugar Ray also gave a crisp salute. "I just pray you remember all of this conversation tomorrow morning, the moment I unlock her shackles"

"Oh, I will, I will" The tall, slender female mouse waved that concern away as she turned around to leave. "And about that…" She suddenly stopped, drew her knife out again and showed it back at Tammy. "It would be a shame if you run away tomorrow. I'm afraid I'm not myself when I'm hungry. You see, I could end up cutting your friends down bit by bit, finger by finger just to keep myself entertained as the time passes by, understood?"

"Understood!" A suddenly pale cook assistant quickly nodded.

"Très Bien!" Desiree D'allure walked away to rejoin her shipmates in a not so friendly game of poker, which over time grew in intensity to the point of force the participants to draw knives and issue death threats all around. Oh, the foul language this female mouse spew on her supposed friends made Tammy drop her jaw both in shock and amazement.

Hours went by, and peace and quiet finally returned to that rodent compartment hidden in the ship's hold. At the end, and despite many promises, blood wasn't draw that night. And now, every scavenger was soundly and deeply asleep - no doubt the result of indulging too much into alcohol and games-. Even the guard in charge was dozing off on that late hour, leaving the hostages alone with their thoughts.

Dale, for example, was resting his face on Foxglove's shoulder, suffering a personal tragedy very few could understand. "This is it, Foxy… I'm dead! Dead, I tell you!"

"Oh darling!" The pink bat quickly kissed his boyfriend's forehead. "Please don't lose hope! I'm sure Chip and Monterey Jack will save us sooner than later!"

"I don't care to live anymore!" He covered his face in shame. "My reputation as artist is tarnished! Covered in mud! fallen in disgrace! It… it doesn't matter if they come and save me from Tammy's inquisitors, or Gadget's sister (And here the invoked girls gave the minstrel sideway glances) if I won't be able to perform in front of a crowd anymore!"

Dale then shoot daggers at the reward notices that Desiree was carrying on her backpack. "These horrible pieces of paper, is all their fault! Now people will look at me and say: Oh, there goes that devilish bard with a bounty on his head! Might as well capture him and get me some easy gold!"

"Don't be dramatic!"

"Gotta be" The bard let himself fall on the lap of his partner. "it's on the job's description" A big yawn came out from him. "But I'll fix it, you'll see… As soon as we can get out of here"

The love-struck bat contemplated as her betrothed slowly succumbed to slumber and, once she detected the heartbeats to be slow and steady, leaned forward to whisper on his ear with a soothing voice. "Of course you will, my love. Now rest and let me take care of you"

Next to Dale and Foxy was Gadget, coping with this situation the best way she could: by immersing herself in her own little world of mathematical laws and theorems. Right then her mind was working on finding a way to measure the speed of the boat only with the tools available at the moment, which were close to none. Perhaps she could use her tail or whiskers as points of reference... "No, scratch that" She muttered against the piece of cloth pressed on her muzzle. "A passenger always travels at the same speed of the vehicle he is in, so a second observer must help..."

The blonde mouse's heart dropped as soon as she pictured Chip as the observer who would come to her aid. If the words of that horrible vole priest from were true – there was no reason to think otherwise – then her rescuer had been captured by the inquisition days ago, mere hours after the group was spotted and scattered to the four winds.

If only she had been awake on that terrible moment, but her gift… her cursed gift wouldn't leave her face the morning sun ever again. Oh, that side effect was indeed on the small letters of the contract, and at the time she just shrugged it off as a minor nuisance – she always considered herself a night owl student anyway, with no friends at all other than Lawhinie–. What a joke, that only after becoming a being shrouded in darkness, managed to find friends as precious as Chip, Dale and company.

A few nights ago, on Saint Pierre's graveyard, Chip had sworn to always protect her. In response, and perhaps due to the chipmunk's infectious optimism, she made an oath to protect him as well. Always. It ended up as a promise she couldn't keep even for two days. A lie.

" _Now Chip is imprisoned, probably dead! And me? On my way to the torture chamber, unable to speak or move my paws!_ " The blonde mouse thought and panicked, then gazed over at Tammy, who was immersed reading the grimoire. " _Tammy, I've put my hope on you! Please, help me get out of here. Help me save Chip before it's too late!_ "

The blonde mouse leaned wearily against the wooden wall, then closed her big blue eyes and prayed to fall asleep again. Her situation was too grim and too hopeless to endure it awake. She wanted nothing to do with pirates or inquisitors or even fish soup. What Gadget wanted was to see her friend again, her beloved stubborn ranger, safe and happy.

Mercy came in form of a vision not long after she finally forced herself to sleep. There was Chip Maplewood again in the depths of a dark forest, dressed in rags this time, clashing a pair of purple swords with wild fury against the trunk of what seemed to be a pine tree. Over and over the chipmunk attacked its stoic victim, causing a rain of splinters to fall on him as result. Strangely enough, in this vision the blades had voices of their own, squeaky bird-like voices that screamed in pain at their wielder. But Chip didn't falter, didn't relent and didn't stop punishing these blades. Instead, his own screams drowned the curses sent to him, screams that kept demanding the voices to yield to his will.

The vision faded as Gadget struggled to grasp the meaning of it all. Still, a smile was drawn on her dreamy face. A heavy burden had been lifted from her heart. Chip was still alive! She could still uphold her promise!

The kind pink bat raised her eyes from Dale as the toothy smile of the witch caught her attention. "Look, she must be having a good dream" She whispered at Tammy with a hint of envy. "What do witches dream of, I wonder?"

The squirrel just uttered back something akin to a grumble. Whatever the witch was dreaming about was of no importance to her on that moment. Right then she only had eyes for the cooking book, her mother's grimoire, which was back in her hands after so many days.

At the turn of each page she transported herself to her childhood, when she would sneak out of the bed in the middle of the night and surprise her mother on the act of writing new recipes into the book. "Inoffensive cooking recipes, right mom?" She whispered to herself as her palm hovered over the instructions to prepare mushroom soup, a local favorite back in Saint Pierre.

What happened next drained the color off her fur. The ink in the page twirled and blurred as if responding to the girl's magical touch, and the whole paragraph re-emerged again with a different set of instructions: chants and finger movements required to cast a spell called "Solar bolt".

Once the initial shock faded, Tammy felt like screaming in outrage, and barely contained herself from doing so. it was true; what Gadget and Lawhinie claimed was all true. Her mother was indeed a witch in hiding. "No, what was the word they used? Archmage?" In any case, Bethany Lombardi had been living a double life all these years as Elizabeth Squirrel, innkeeper in the boring village of Saint Pierre. She even kept the secret from her favorite daughter. "Mom, how could you!?" She muttered amid clenched teeth. "Why didn't you tell me anything!?"

And if the rest of the witches's confession was also true, then her mother had died in Paris not long ago, in a battle against a demon disguised as a cat. Just like that, any resentment the girl had nurtured against her mother slowly transformed into grief. "Then, my mom is dead?"

"No!" She shook her head so violently it startled Foxglove next to her. "I refuse to believe the tales of a pair of black witches! My mother is still alive! Must be! My father must be too… Oh Chip, if only you were here!"

In an effort to avoid succumbing to desperation, the girl forced herself again into study. "Chip! There should be something in here to escape and save Chip! I won't leave him to rot in Rouen!" Soon she found a plethora of clerical spells to memorize: 'Bliss', 'Protection from negative plane', 'Lesser restoration'. None of them looked offensive enough for her taste. However, and to her increasing disappointment, by the time she reached the end of the book Tammy had found that all the spells were defensive. All these were 'white magic' spells. None could be used to hurt another person. Another quick read to the prologue and some annotations confirmed it: Bethany Lombardi was a white witch, who would pray to God – the christian god – in order to fuel her repertoire of spells. That conclusion brought mixed feelings to the girl's troubled soul. On one side, none of these spells would help her overcome the band of pirates by herself alone. Even some annotations warned the reader to focus on support the fighters and offensive wizards of the party. On the other side, the required chants to activate the spells – together with the prologue written by Bethany herself - convinced the girl that her beloved mother was indeed a champion of goodness, one pure, generous being of light. Pretty much the opposite of the witch Tammy was now sharing the boat with and who had enslaved the mind and heart of her Chipper.

It was settled then, and the squirrel teenager sent a silent prayer to the heavens. "Father in heaven! I beg you, give me strength like you gave it to my mother! Allow me to save Chip, my friends and parents from the inquisition! Allow me to become your champion!"

To Tammy's amazement, her paws ignited with a bluish divine glow. Quite alarmed, the girl hid them behind her back, and even called her fluffy tail for help. Once she made sure nobody around had noticed – that is, nobody besides Foxglove who kept looking at her in disbelief – a smirk full of hope grew on her.

That next morning, mere minutes before dawn, Desiree herself unshackled the cook's new assistant and sent her off along with the old lizard in search of ingredients for a proper breakfast. The leader of the expedition was all smiles at that early hour, even gave Tammy a push on the back as the girl stepped out the of the compartment. Her behavior was frightening, really.

"Why is that pirate in such high spirits?" Tammy asked dubiously at her guardian the moment they reached the main hold of the hulk.

"I bet you my good eye that Cap'n is in 'high spirits' because she is certain you will come back to your chains and shackles without a second thought, once we have made breakfast for her"

"Tch! She is a cruel, sadistic mouse!"

"A fine piece of work, isn't she?" The old lizard smirked smugly. "Even so, did you know she is about to get married?"

"You must be kidding!"

"I swear on my mother, girl! Lil' Desiree's been bragging about it for two full weeks! Poor gullible mouse from Scotland, faster than you can say "Louis XIV" he fell victim of our captain's good looks and sexy accent"

"Ugh" The girl cringed with revulsion. Then, a strange idea came to her. "A mouse from Scotland? Who…wait no, must be someone else"

"Anyway…" Sugar Ray shrugged. "I've never understood what's the appeal of marrying foreigners. People from faraway lands, with different language, different customs, different religions! That's just looking for trouble! We french rodents have so little in common with Scots, Brits, Irish..."

"Germans…" Tammy added sourly as she climbed up a basket.

"Ay, germans too" Sugar Ray Lizard then fell into a deep contemplation, watching his assistant running from one basket of fruits to another, inspecting the products carefully from every angle before picking up the perfect sample. This girl, the old lizard realized, was as devoted to her trade as cook as Bethany Lombardi was to the trade of sorcery. With a wistful sigh, the old sailor decided it was time to open the wound again.

"Cap'n Olivier also married a foreigner" he started as casually as he could. Tammy just nodded, focused as she was in finding the right grape for her salad dish. "He married your mother"

The shock of this revelation froze Tammy in her place. "W-what?" She mumbled turning back to the old lizard, anger boiling up inside of her. "What are you talking about?"

"Aye, is true!" He trembled as he gathered strength to continue. "Captain Olivier was your father… I'm sorry it took me so long to recognize his elder daughter!"

"You lie!" The squirrel jumped down the basket and lashed out at his companion. "Stop talking! My father is Gerald Squirrel, and he is a doctor, not a damned criminal!"

"A doctor, yes" Old Sugar Ray held the girl by the shoulders. "Bethany came up with that idea once she got pregnant with you and decided it was time to settle down. I was there, on the throne room of the keep when she told us the good news"

"No, you are mistaking it all…"

"My girl, Bethany was our ship's surgeon, not Olivier. Be honest, did you ever saw your dad performing a surgery?"

"Yes! Plenty of times! Well, he and my mother…"

"Yes?"

Here Tammy's voice dropped down as well as her heart. "He would watch and let my mother do all the work"

"Of course he did! Olivier the slasher had a talent to cut open people, but to patch them up… not in one hundred years"

Tammy, lost at words, let herself slid down the nearby wooden wall. With each passing second, she came to realize this old lizard was telling her the truth. Indeed, Gerald Squirrel was more of a fencer and swashbuckling fighter than a professional surgeon. He even had taught her some moves and stances. The image of the mounted blades and shield displayed proudly at her family's inn flashed into her mind. But if the lizard was telling the truth, then… "Where… where are mom and dad?"

"Dead. That cat from hell devoured both. A scene that will haunt me the rest of my life"

"No!" Tammy shook her head vigorously, as tears began to overflow her large grey eyes. "I don't believe you! Others have told me the same, but I know better! My mother is a powerful witch, she wouldn't die that way! And my father, he is the best with the sword! Even better than Chip!"

A serious scowl crept up over his face. "Your father died first, buying time for Bethany's spell to charge. That demon tore my dear cap'n to shreds! Perhaps that's why… that's why at the end, your mother stood still in shock while the demon pounced on her"

"Enough! Don't say no more! Mom, dad! Oh God, have mercy!" The image of her parents dying a gruesome death made Tammy wrap her arms around herself in an effort to stop shaking.

Her sorrow overwhelmed his old companion. Yes, he had spoken bluntly, but some truths must be delivered without a sugarcoat. "Aye girl, grieve for them. I'm glad you can join us at last. Just don't forget about the living who are counting on you back at our quarters. We must go back soon, Desiree D'Allure is not one to be trifled with"

As he turned around to leave, he gave the girl a last glance. "if it helps make things seem any better, your mother died like a true hero, vanishing the demon back to the depths of hell with her last breath. May God never allow that monster to walk again these lands!"

These words weren't enough to comfort Tammy. She knew, deep down she knew, that the witches had spoken the truth when they affirmed their master was still roaming the Earth. Now the cat could be as far away as in Cologne, or as closer to them as Paris…"

Sorrow slowly transformed into rage. Indeed, the demon that killed his parents was still alive! Her eyes flared with sparks of resolve, resolve born out of a sense of revenge and duty. She was a cleric now; she had seen spells that described how to defeat demons in the book; she would finish what her parents started; With God by her side, she would avenge them!

And she would let Chipper join in her revenge, of course.

Disclaimer:

(*) "Fifteen men and a bottle of rum" lyrics belong to Troy Banarzi - De Wolfe music


	9. Chapter 9 - Brawl in Paris

**Chapter 9: Brawl in Paris**

"Over there! The gates of Paris!"

"Aye, girl. These ruins mark the end of our time together"

"Hey, are you crying?"

"I'm sorry. I'm too old to go against cap'n Desiree and her gang. To be honest, I'm scared! Curse my failing body and my age! I'm forced to stand and watch Oliver's daughter being delivered to the wolves"

"No, Sugar Ray! You've helped me plenty! Don't worry, I already have a plan to free myself and my friends, one that will make you hold your breath in awe!"

The dreadful hour came, when the river hulk entered Paris. The human captain had followed the schedule to the letter, his old ship plied the Sienne trade route all the way from Le Havre and now expected to dock at the riverfront with the first morning lights just like he had done it every week for the last ten years of his life. His very boring life.

Desiree D'allure, in a totally opposite mood, blew a kiss on the direction of that reliable human. "According to plan, everything goes according to plan!" She happily sang as she turned around and made her way back to the rodent compartments.

The human crew navigated through the jam-packed waters with steel nerves and great skill. An accident so close to the goal line would be devastating. Devastating to other ships, of course, as this river hulk was as slow and sturdy as a siege ram. Some caution wasn't out of order, though, as that morning more than a dozen other merchant ships were racing to the market harbor to secure a good spot to unload their cargo.

But this captain wasn't in a hurry. Years ago, his father - and previous captain - had come to an arrangement with the riverfront officials to secure a nice and permanent spot there. A spot so close to the market the ship could almost be considered as just another stand of farm products from the north.

Desiree found her gang packing up their gear and tomb raiding tools: ropes, hammers and chisels. Everything one would need to crack open the lid of a coffin. Meanwhile, another pair of goons were tying up the prisoners – an easy task since two of said prisoners were succumbing to the curse of daytime slumber-.

"Roldan, Absolom!" The fearsome captain of the expedition called on the rats that were shaking Gadget and Foxglove in an effort to wake them up. "What do you think you are doing? That's no way to treat a lady!"

"Uhh, but then, how are we going to take them outside?" The bulky Absolom – Desiree's most trusted 'enforcer'- scratched his head.

"Just hold them by the waist and make everyone outside believe they are your seasick girlfriends! Isn't that difficult. Oh, I know what you are thinking… but just to be clear, I won't tolerate any wickedness towards a female like me. So be careful where you place these paws, gentlemen. I'll be watching you the whole time, understood?"

"Aye, boss!" Both rats saluted and went back to find a way to conceal the shackles and ropes the best way they could without being accused of harassment by their leader. In the end, they decided to play safe and just dress Foxy and Gadget with their own, rat sized, pirate coats.

With that matter settled, Desiree then walked towards Tammy and Dale, who were very much awake and displaying different, almost opposite, demeanors. While the red nosed chipmunk kept kicking back and forth at his captors in an obtuse effort to escape right there and right now, the squirrel cook just sat leg-crossed and watched at the show her friend and the crew were putting on. Just watched in fearful, silent submission. Or so Desiree believed.

"Oh my, what seems to be the problem, monsieur minstrel?" The tall mouse in leather armor asked with a clearly fake concerned expression.

"Hell no!" Dale struggled against his captors one more time. "I refuse to make my debut in Paris as a common criminal! Either you release me now or leave me here in this boat!"

"Oh, so that's the reason of your outburst? And here I thought your girlfriend would be your main concern"

After a pause of realization, the chipmunk sheepishly added. "Uhm, sure. I mean, release 'us'… And could you give me my lute back?"

The pirate silently cut the distance between her and the bard, cocked her head with a thoughtful expression, and then threw a sweeping kick at him out of the blue, making him fall hard on the plank. Next, she dug the heel of her boot on the poor chipmunk's chest, effectively pinning him down on the wooden floor.

"Ouch ouch ouch!" Dale cried out.

"No deal, monsieur minstrel. Now be a good boy and get ready to disembark on my command. The road to the inquisitorial palace will be a long one, and I prefer if you stay as quiet and obedient as your friend here the whole time, lest bad things happen to you, understood?"

The red nosed chipmunk nodded amid a wave of pain.

"Excellent! Pietro, secure this bounty tightly. Sugar Ray, do the same with your assistant. I'll go out and see if the way is clear enough."

"Aye aye, captain!" Both scavenger and sailor saluted as the cunning pirate stepped out the rodent quarters.

A full hour later, Tammy, Dale, Gadget and Foxglove were greeted by the sun at the river docks in Paris and by the bustling crowds of humans and animals enjoying the day at the markets. Those who were awake couldn't help but take a deep breath in and relish on the gentle wind of September that blown on their furry faces that morning. The city's riverfront indisputably left Tammy overwhelmed. Sure, she expected it to be a busy place, but not once in her life had she seen crowds so large and so cramped like these right in front of her, with noisy, towering humans occupying the whole width of the street, turning any attempt to escape between them and their heavy feet into a suicidal task.

So plan 'B' was discarded, then. Fortunately, plan 'A' was boiling up on that same moment.

Just a quick glance at Dale and anyone could attest the poor chipmunk was growing anxious by every step he took forward and into the enveloping crowd. Despite the precautions taken by the pirates, the chipmunk bard still stood out like a rainbow in the dark. Obviously, his high charisma was the one to blame, as it made everybody's eyes naturally focus on him whether they desired it or not. On that moment, Dale Oakmont wished he was invisible.

From the right, from the left. At his back and ahead of him. The bard felt the people's judging eyes all over him, these inquiring gazes which invariably fell on his shackles as he was dragged away from the pier by the contingent of armed pirates. Even worse, they were taking him in the direction of an alley, right across the populated market. Such a dark place ought to be a den brimming with rodents and insects, future witnesses of Dale's downfall parade.

An earthquake-like tremor took over the street, but barely a scream or two was yelled. It was a common occurrence, after all, the arrival of merchant horse carts, sometimes a dozen of them in a single line. Rodents and humans had to make a halt and step aside as fast as they could to prevent being trampled by a greedy merchant's caravan. As result, both populations always ended up cramped shoulder to shoulder with the river at their backs. Such was the uncomfortable situation Tammy was looking forward to. The time to escape had come.

Sugar Ray Lizard, upon Tammy's signal, lurched forward and bumped over Dale's guardian, Pietro. "Sorry matey!"

"Whoa, watch it!" The mouse with the lute gave him a one-eyed killing stare.

"It's so crowded here!" The old sailor excused himself while leaning a bit too much over his handicapped companion's shoulder. "And my knees hurt, let me rest on you for a minute, aye?"

"Like hell I would" The scavenger pushed him back, causing Sugar Ray to stumble into a pair of middle aged mice, who happened to be sailors just like him.

"Hey!" One of them confronted Desiree's aide, while the other helped the lizard to stand up. "That's no way to treat a senior sailor!"

"But… He started it! Pietro stuttered. His response, however, wasn't enough to quench the sailor's thirst for a fight. A quick jab to the muzzle took the scavenger by surprise and made him fall over another pair of innocent bystanders.

The screams of alarm that followed added a nice bonus to Tammy's plan. Now the entire pier was in a ruckus, with mice and insects running away from the brawl. Panic threatened to spread by the whole market like an out-of-control fire.

The cleric then got rid of her previously unlocked shackles and made her way through the scrambling crowd until he reached her bard friend, which was strangely quiet and unmoving, pretty much like a statue. "Dale!" She shook him out. "Are you all right?"

"I can't take it anymore…" The chipmunk whispered back with an agitated expression, but barely aware of the turmoil around him. "Everybody here looks at me like I'm a lowlife criminal! Me, the great and gifted Dale Oakmont, genius artist! If only, if only…"

"If only you were free?"

"Free, yes" Dale nodded sourly, only to be witness of a wave or radiance that came from Tammy's paws. "What are you doing? Wait, where are your chains?" The chipmunk exclaimed almost too loudly.

"Quiet! I'm casting a spell on you!" The cleric whispered a bit more alarmed, glancing sideways. There she found Desiree, not far away, pushing commoners left and right, struggling to reach her troops and bounties again. The cleric only had a few seconds to act.

However, and according to the grimoire's instructions, this spell's last motion demanded the arms of the caster to be flexed out toward the target. Undoubtedly, doing that would blow her cover, but there was no turn back now. The girl made a pause and looked for courage in the memories of her brave handsome Chipper, only then she dared to extend her arms out and pronounce the last word of the spell: "Strength!"

Sure enough, Desiree caught on and scrambled towards them, but it was too late. A fountain of power bathed and overwhelmed the red nosed chipmunk: his muscles grew in size; his posture corrected itself, with shoulders pushed back, chest out and chin high. Indeed, Dale looked now like one of these greek statues of centuries old, if said statues depicted chipmunks instead of humans. Tammy was left speechless, to say the least, by the results of her spell. For a brief moment, her imagination replaced Dale with Chip. What would have happen if she had used this same spell on her crush instead?

A paw twisting her wrist painfully sent Tammy back to reality. Pietro had just caught her again. "What do you think you are doing? How did you get free?"

"Gah!" The girl jerked her arm back. "Let me go!"

"Not a chance, cook! You are coming with me and… Whoa!"

The one-eyed pirate suddenly lost the ground – and the grip over Tammy- as he was lifted effortlessly by an angered Dale. "Give. Back. My. Lute!" The herculean chipmunk demanded outraged.

The now dismayed squirrel stepped back, and just in time, because on that moment another pirate threw himself at Dale determined to tackle him down. His flying form passed next to Tammy like an arrow…

And, like an arrow that ends up hitting a brick, so ended the flight of the pirate. He crashed off Dale's body and landed at the chipmunk's feet almost unconscious. The bard barely noticed, as he was busy twirling Pietro over the head like a helicopter, if people from XVII century France knew what a helicopter was.

The pirate captain stopped to better grasp the scene unfolding in her eyes. Yes, common folk were fleeing terrorized in her general direction, away from the crazed red nosed chipmunk at the center of the storm. However, pirates and scavengers were already closing distance with him, no doubt that crazy chipmunk would lose his nerves the moment he saw himself surrounded and…

"I won't come back to jail!" Dale roared like a lion, wielding poor Pietro as some kind of hammer, gripping him tightly from the ankles, and smashing him against his comrades left and right without any apparent effort. His enemies had no choice but to turn around and flee.

Desiree was left perplexed, obviously. "Sacre bleu! Why is that chipmunk so strong and violent out of a sudden!? What kind of witchcraft is this?"

But the only witch she could think of was right next to her, placidly asleep on Absolom's arms. A quick negation motion from her subordinate confirmed the blonde mouse wasn't the culprit this time. "Who is to blame for this disorder? Wait, where is that squirrel?"

Tammy was easy to spot. She was crouched right next to Dale, begging him to stop acting like a maniac, dodging the screaming form of Pietro as he was swung over her head. From the pirate's point of view, the girl looked more like a bystander caught in the line of fire than the mastermind behind this ruckus.

"Boss!" Roldan tapped on Desiree's shoulder with urgency. Once he got her attention then pointed upwards with his free arm. "The humans are becoming aware of us!"

Just as the burly rat made that statement, a lady screamed at the top of her lungs; an action that was soon echoed by many others upon finally catching on the swarm of rodents that were running wild at their feet.

Some pedestrians ran away abhorred, some others jumped over the market stands as if the floor was made of lava. The bravest, however, took their broomsticks out and got ready to make a stand against humankind's natural enemies, mice.

And with that, Desiree's last hope for an orderly, surreptitious march to the inquisition's palace evaporated. With rodents now escaping from the sweeping and crushing tools, the whole street fell into chaos. Into a maelstrom of rodents and humans with that damned red nosed chipmunk at the very core - which had already finished with Pietro and was now strapping that old lute at his back-.

Anger boiled up inside the female thief's body. "Absolom!" The enraged Desiree pulled the rat by his coat, her gaze fixed on the prey ahead. "Take your prisoners to our hideout in Les Halles. Hide and wait for us there, understood?"

"Aye, captain!" Absolom saluted, followed by Roldan, both still holding in their arms the slumbering blonde witch and her bat friend.

By mere chance, Tammy caught eye of the thieves leaving Desiree's side. Faster than wind, she grabbed Dale by the wrist. "You finished here, bully? Come on, these rats are running away with your girlfriend!"

"As if! Point me at them, I'll give them the beating of their lives!"

"Ugh, I've created a monster" The girl muttered to herself.

However, as soon as the pair of companions took a step forward, in came Desiree D'allure, slashing her way right between them with murdering intentions.

"Watch out!" Tammy screamed jumping away from the blade. Only her superb reflects prevented a tragedy, as she could have lost one finger or two on that flashing moment. However, those same skills made her crash against a pair of bystanders, bounce aside and land ungracefully on the cobblestone road. Even worse, as the cleric struggled to regain her senses, the shadow of a broomstick loomed over the rodent crowd. Its elderly owner sent hateful glares as she raised the tool threatening to crush many of them mice right on that spot. Tammy, stunned with fear of the falling object and its gigantic owner, only managed to curl, cover her head and shut her eyes closed. "Oh God!"

A cacophony of terrified screams was heard as this merciless human stomped the broomstick on the ground and swooped rodents left and right cursing them with a mask of hate and disgust. Soon he was joined by people armed with blades, sticks and even torches. The market quarter became a battlefield.

But Tammy wouldn't be one of them. The next time the squirrel opened her eyes, she found herself safe under one of the market stands, in the company of other mammals and insects hiding for their lives. Confused as she was, she got to hear a somewhat familiar voice on the distance, one that barely raised above the screams of terror and pain of the smallfolk coming her way. That voice send a clear command: "Save Gadget!"

"To save Gadget…" The cleric made an effort to settle down and remember. "Right, I was going to save her… these rats, where did they go?"

As she looked around for the pirates, the corner of her eye caught for a fleeting moment the silhouette of another rodent making his way through the terrorized crowd. In fact, while others were fleeing to the safety of the sewers and back alleys, this one was running in the opposite direction: right towards the extermination squad. Also, right where Dale had been seen last.

The same old lady that almost killed Tammy also put Desiree in a compromised situation. The female pirate had to use every ounce of her extraordinary dexterity in order to dodge the group of rodent citizens that damned broomstick sent flying towards her. "Hell no!" She exclaimed loudly as she rolled to one side. A pair of scavengers from her gang weren't so nimble, and they ended up cushioning the falling victims unwillingly.

In the middle of this chaos, Desiree lost sight of Dale and Tammy. Cursing the gods, the bard and everyone in between, she escaped towards the safety of the back alley, rounding up whatever comrade she could find in her way. By the moment she reached sanctuary behind some crates, seven rodents were at her disposal. Less than half of the members in the original expedition.

"Goddamit!" The enraged captain smashed her fist against the wall, then turned to address her companions. "Where are my prisoners!? Where are the squirrel and the chipmunk!?"

The gang of scavengers just shook their heads in a servile manner.

"Mon dieu, I'm surrounded by…" As she turned around to face the wall again, her sentence was cut short in the air. Because, pasted on that same wall, were the familiar bounty notices of Chip Maplewood, Tammy Squirrel, Dale Oakmont and the blonde witch. No, that wasn't quite correct. Dale's poster had been torn to pieces, with many scraps laying on the ground right under the pirate's heels. "What the…?"

"Uh, is everything all right, boss?" A still dazed Pietro leaned on that wall, dividing his attention between his leader and the street brawl at their backs which was finally winding down.

Desiree looked over at the distance, further deep into the alley, and smiled wickedly. "A-ha! Everyone, follow me!" Then she broke into a run with the same urgency of a hunter that just spotted her prey. Her astonished underlings had no choice but to follow her pace, with at least half of them cursing under their breath, still reeling from the trashing the overpowered bard gave them minutes ago.

The female thief slowed down, if only for a second, to take a glimpse at the bounty posters pinned to that wall. Again, only Dale's poster had been torn to shreds, which in turn pointed out in the direction of the rodent neighborhood at the darkest corner of the alley.

Another detail her keen eyes caught on was that half of the poster was still glued to the wall, unlike the first one which had been ripped down with such excessive strength it took bits of plaster with it. "Good. Whatever spell this annoying bard used on himself, must be fading down" Desiree concluded.

The thief's confidence in her tracking skills soon granted a prize. The bard himself, frantic and loud, ripping yet another bounty poster with his picture from a column. Needless to say, all eyes around were on him. Dale had arrived at the most populated corner of the alley, where a mixed community of rodents and insects thrived among rotten crates, repugnant odors coming from exposed sewers and a semi-permanent darkness. The tall buildings around only allowed to sun to fall over the narrow street for a couple of hours each day.

Time was around noon, with the sunlight running down the walls towards the filthy ground at the feet of Dale and Desiree.

"Dumb piece of paper!" The chipmunk yelled at the poster after his last failed attempt to destroy it. "It's all your fault! You ugly poster printed with the dark ink of falsehood and untruth!"

So engrossed was Dale telling off his own picture that he never realized he'd been encircled by Desiree and the gang. Instead, he angrily attempted to bite and chomp down the poster. "My herculean strength may be gone, but I can still conquer you! With my teeth!"

"You heard that guys!?" Pietro announced a bit too loudly. "The chipmunk is a weakling again! Let's make him pay!"

Dale turned around, heart thumbing with fear, at the sound of the familiar voice. "Gah! You guys again?"

Following Desiree's lead, the pirates drew out their blades and stepped forward to close the circle. The pale, trembling Dale soon found himself with his back against the column as if replacing his own bounty notice. "Wait, we can… we can sort this out! Help? Someone?"

The bard looked left and right with pleading eyes, but got only cold indifference in return. The people around didn't want no part of this. Instead, they quickly turned their backs on him and walked away, leaving thugs and victim alone. A behavior that made the thieves laugh wryly.

"Oh, you poor child" Desiree's murderous grin crept across her face. "This is not a little town in the woods where everybody helps each other. This is the big city! A place where people like me can steal, stab and outright murder in plain sight with nobody daring to move a finger! Paris is a paradise for us criminals!"

"That's exactly why I prefer to stay in the woods" Said a calm and composed voice at the thief's back.

"Who is there?" A vexed Desiree turned around, towards the crowd that promptly lowered their gaze submissively. Suddenly, her eyes caught on the only rodent who did the opposite: to meet her eyes with a defiant and kindled stare.

At first sight this chipmunk was no match to the seasoned group of scavengers and pirates, despite the bold attitude. He was a skinny shorty rodent; red fur, black nose and dark eyes; dressed only in a filthy muddy shirt with a torn rag of a cloak on top. Sure, he had two swords fastened at his waist but…

"C-Chip?" Dale mumbled with great relief, a palm pressed against his chest, realizing it was indeed his lost friend the one walking towards him. "Omigosh, Chip, it's you! It's really you!"

"Chip Maplewood? The ranger of Saint Pierre?" Desiree, incredulous, glanced back and forth from the poster in the wall to the chipmunk standing in front of her.

"The one and only!" The black nosed ranged declared as he advanced forward, only to cause the female thief and company to raise their guards and blades menacingly. In response, he staggered his feet and reached for the dual sword's pommels. On this position, He dared to send an inquisitive look to the tall female mouse threatening his friend. "And who you might be?"

"I'm Desiree D'Allure" She answered with a courteous bow, followed by a slow and flirtatious lick up down the blade of her wicked shortsword. With a devilish smile that darkened her otherwise beautiful face, she also added: "And today is my lucky day, mister five hundred gold nuggets! You are going to make me a very rich mouse!"

The crazed female thief rushed at the ranger in a sequence of flashing zigzags that ended up rewarding the opponent's open left flank, the blade just a breath away from reaching vital organs. Chip gritted his teeth and jumped aside, losing his balance in a desperate effort to avoid being stabbed by the lightning fast criminal. "Her speed is insane" He admitted quite alarmed. As the sharp knife graced his skin, the ranger fell to the ground in a roll. A pair of Desiree's companions saw this as an opportunity to cut the meddling chipmunk in pieces, but Chip read their intentions and ended his movement with a quick draw of swords and a upside down slashing twirl that put some distance again between him and the murderous pirates.

Everybody around let out gasps of surprise at the sight of the ranger's blades: longswords glowing purple with ethereal feather-shaped motes dripping off from the edges. They were truly a marvel to behold, with their owner brandishing them left and right with ease, as if the swords weighted nothing at all and were an extension of the chipmunk's claws. Soon the ranger got surrounded by a whirlwind of ghostly raven feathers.

"M-magic swords!" The panicked Pietro stumbled back, only to be shoved up again by his enraged boss.

"Oui, magic swords! A nice addition to our treasure!" Desiree pushed his comrade to the front line again. "Scavengers, we've dealt with magic before! Now bring me that chipmunk and his swords at once!"

"Aye, Captain!" The thieves and cutthroats engaged the dual-welding ranger among screams of panic from the people around. Chip met their charge with stoic courage, holding back any negative feelings that could arise in the heat of the battle: hatred, fear, panic. For these thoughts would stir up the raven's thirst for blood and, by extension, the ranger's own thirst for blood. He swore, for the hundredth time perhaps, that he wouldn't become a murderer again.

The first minutes of the battle passed by fast. The chipmunk in rags managed to hold the line against the eight thieves who pressed on with furious, albeit uncoordinated, attacks. On close inspection, it wasn't such an impressive feat, to be honest. Some of Chip's opponents were limping, others didn't have enough strength to keep their guard up and at least a pair winced just by clashing swords with him. The ranger blamed the humans and their cleaning tools. Little he could know, that the minstrel was the real culprit behind these handicapped opponents.

And Desiree? She hadn't move from the same spot, almost emulating a field marshal, commanding and supervising the development of a battle from afar. Except she wasn't as much as a marshal as she was a cunning devious evildoer. "She is using these guys as meat shields" The ranger reasoned. "She wants to tire me out!"

"Chip, look out!" Dale warned his friend just in time for him to turn and dodge the tackle from a sneaky thief. A thief that had no backup plan and end up at the mercy of Chip's slashing right sword. Everybody around prepared themselves to witness the first casualty of the battle, but the ranger astonished them and perhaps Odin himself by moving in and landing a cross punch right on the solar plexus, driving all the air out of the lungs and effectively putting him out of combat.

Of course, Huggin and Munnin cried foul. _"Boring! Boring!"_ Their squeaky voices resounded all over Chip's mind. _"Where is the blood? Why do you let him live?"_

 _"No more deaths…"_ Chip answered inwardly to his companions. _"No more blood for you!"_

 _"You stupid mortal! If you don't kill him now, he will raise and will try to kill you again!"_

"Let him try, then!" Chip raised his voice, much to the bewilderment of everybody around him. "I'll knock him out again!"

"Oh, you hear that, comrades?" The teasing female rallied her gang together. "This sweet chipmunk doesn't believe in killing! Not even on self-defense!" Then, she sent the coldest sneer at the ranger. "Isn't he the lamest excuse of a male you've ever seen?"

Very few things in life surpass the embarrassment of being mocked by a female right where it counts most: one's masculinity. However, Chip not only managed to swallow the biting remark, but even challenged it with a smug smirk. "If only you know" He whispered narrowing his eyes down to slits. "The kind of murderer I became"

Chip's tough guy behavior didn't sit well with the remaining scavengers, who had expected him to break and exchange insults, scream and threaten with violence. Instead they found themselves facing the personification of an ice wall. He truly was an obnoxious chipmunk, refusing to take the female's emotional bait. On Desiree's silent nodding command, they lashed out again roaring and brandishing their blades in the air menacingly.

And they fell, one by one, victims of their own rage and stubbornness. They would live to learn from their mistakes, though, as Chip kept true to his word and inflicted upon them only non-lethal wounds. Once the dust settled down there stood him, panting exhausted but still keeping his guard up, surrounded by writhing, aching and sobbing thieves. Dale couldn't be more relieved; the ravens couldn't be hungrier and Desiree… she couldn't be more embarrassed.

"You useless bastards!" The female shook her fist, lips curling back to bare her fangs. "He is just one spineless chipmunk, why can't you bring him down? Enough, I'll just kill you and be done with this. Your bounty says 'live or dead' anyway!" For the first time in the whole battle, she took a slight step back and reached for her belt, for her collection of magic scrolls and a wand of lightning with a few charges left. "One scroll of 'cure minor wounds' and another of 'comprehend languages'… Ugh, these won't do against him! I better use the wand and fry him on the spot!"

The sudden gleam on the thief's green eyes wasn't lost to Chip, much less the way she hesitantly motioned to reach for a strange-looking carved stick on the belt. The ranger's sharp instincts told him that stick was bad news.

 _"Indeed! Stop her!"_ Munnin urged.

 _"I'm on it!"_ Chip lashed out at Desiree, which got stunned for a moment by the chipmunk's sudden change of tactics. No more waiting and countering, now Chip was actively looking to cut her down. Or so it seemed at first. In reality, her opponent was just aiming to disable her before she could summon any nasty tricks, magical or otherwise, as thieves were famous for.

The clash of blades began again with renewed energies. If Desiree was amazed by Chip's sudden offensive, Chip was as amazed by the way Desiree held her ground armed only with one shortsword. A single weapon which the female mouse used with such skill it was able to stop and deflect every blow sent her way. Also, the height difference had no effect in her. Chip was supposed to have an advantage with his short stature, which in theory would let him sneak inside the tall mouse's defenses. Not this time, though. Desiree expertly deflected and countered every blow and slash. The ranger had never seen such proficiency before. _"This mouse, Desiree, is in a whole different level than her subordinates. I can't… she is too fast!"_ The chipmunk finally admitted.

 _"Speed is not your problem, hero"_

 _"Nor your solution"_

 _"What's my problem and the solution then?"_

Chip's inner discussion was halted for a moment when the thief sprung to action following an opening in his defenses. Reacting just in the nick of time, the ranger saved his throat from being stabbed conceding instead his left cheek to the cold edge of Desiree's weapon. "Hggn!" The chipmunk grimaced barely resisting the urge to place his paw over the open wound. Instead, he managed to keep enough presence of mind to dodge the murdering thrust that followed and answer it with a double retaliatory slash, one that didn't hit the mark but sent Desiree back a pair of strides.

"Chip!" The bard blurted out.

 _"What's my problem? What's the solution?"_ The ranger raised the questions again, as he and the thief engaged in a high-speed back and forth play of blades that surrounded them with a cloud of sparkling feathers and left the witnesses breathless.

 _"Your problem is you don't try hard enough to kill her!"_

On that moment of realization Desiree won the upper hand again, lunging by surprise right at the chipmunk's eyes in a gliding fencing move that caught Chip off-guard. The poor chipmunk sprung aside with a nasty cut on his muzzle and a frightful look on his face.

 _"See?"_ Huggin lectured its host. _"She is giving it her all, both heart and soul, for a single purpose… to kill you, hero"_

 _"If you had the opportunity, would you lash out at her with the same intention? Would you go and try to gouge her eyes out with your sword?"_

"I…" Deep inside, Chip knew they were right. His attacks and counter attacks were too cautious, too concerned about his opponent's wellbeing. Too worried about… adding another victim to his red-stained path. _"No! I said I won't kill anybody else!"_

" _Then you unavoidably be killed here!"_ Munnin declared ominously. _"Dale, Foxglove and Tammy will be locked away for life; Your witch Gadget… she will burn at the stake for a whole day, all because you won't kill this single person!"_

"Arrgghh!" Chip jumped forth recklessly, the images of his friend's fates dancing in front of him. Again he jumped to strike at Desiree with a double vertical cut, one that Desiree read quite easily. She in turn stepped aside, let the blades smash the ground and then countered with a well-timed, lightning-fast kick to the chipmunk's head. The force of the blow made him go and slam his body hard against the ground, even bounce and roll a couple of times. The concussion caused him to drop his magical longswords, which ended up laying on the ground close to the encircling crowd of rodents.

"Chip! Are you all right? Answer me!" The dismayed bard promptly went to his aid.

"I can't kill her…" The ranger - thoughts spinning, nose and mouth bleeding profusely - dourly admitted. For the first time, He was going to lose a fight, because deep inside… he was only a good, decent person.

"Huh? You don't have to…" Dale meekly whispered, believing Chip's confession had been addressed to him.

But no, it was then when Chip's inner voices chided in like a thunder. _"Enough already! Let us help you!"_

 _"No…"_ Chip squirmed, barely acknowledging his blood spilling down to the cobblestone alley. _"Wait, I'll find a way myself. I'll save my friends, I'll save Gadget!"_

 _"There is only one way"_ The ravens insisted. _"Let us free, if only for a minute"_

 _"We will win this fight for you. Come on, give us just one minute"_

Chip painfully rose up to his knees and gazed at his opponent, who was there standing unscathed, licking her shortsword with a wolfish grin, ready to give the last fatal blow and collect his corpse. Her whole body exuded an aura of murder and violence like Chip had never felt before. No, actually, he had felt something like that once. "One minute, you say…" The ranger swallowed hard. "One minute and we can walk away free?"

 _"One little minute and everything will be right again"_

 _"Please, I… I don't want you to kill her"_

 _"We won't kill her, mortal"_ Huggin mocked at the idea. _"You will, and you'll enjoy it"_

"Raawwrgh!" Out of the blue Chip bolted upright, nostrils flaring, lips pulling back and baring the fangs out. He then glanced over at Desiree with an expression that could only be described as one of thirst, thirst for blood and violence. Drawing long breaths, he slowly stepped forward, fists clenching and unclenching.

"Oh, what's this?" The thief folded her arms and adopted a teasing stance. "You want another round with me? I'm afraid you don't have what it takes… you are unarmed"

Then, for Desiree and everybody's absolute shock, the purple longswords vanished away, leaving a trail of feathers, only to materialize again in Chip's paws.

"Mon Dieu…" Desiree gasped in awe, her heart skipping a beat. "You, stay where you are!" She quickly reached for the aforementioned wand of lightning, and aimed it right at the enraged chipmunk. "I was right, you are too dangerous to live. Die now!"

A crackling surge of electricity came from the wand's tip, illuminating the whole alleyway and startling everybody in the vicinity. Even the caster, who had made sure to cover her eyes before activating the wand, had to blink twice before she could make the silhouette of her scorched target again.

Except that her target wasn't scorched at all. Not even injured. Chip had withstood the magical attack somehow and now was charging out of the cloud with leading blades, even more furious than before, aiming to gouge out her left green eye. The thief let go a yelp of surprise and barely managed to jerk her head aside.

In her hurry to parry the flashing cross slash that followed she gripped the wand as a make-up sword, which resulted on the magical artifact being tossed away from her hand quite easily. "No!" She recoiled her hurt paw, cursing both her opponent and her own blunder.

Chip didn't relent, instead he kept up aiming for the thief's throat, roaring like a rabid animal. "Just what got him?" Desiree wondered with alarm as she deflected yet another thrust.

"E-enough with you!" She yelled out loud, fear overcoming her. "I'll kill you now, you hear me!" Then, she quickly stepped back one stride, if only to get room to pull a special item from her pouch. Chip, of course, lounged at her one more, but this time he found a trap waiting for him, a trap in the form of a dirty bomb to the face. It exploded and covered the whole battleground with a powerful, disabling, cringe-inducing yellow cloud of skunk scent. Chip flinched away coughing and wrinkling his nose, a bodily urge not even the ravens were able to suppress.

That was the moment Desiree chose to come out of the cloud as silent as death, right at the ranger's back, with the to stab him through the spine. Victory -together with blood- were finally at hand.

In the split second that took the shorts word's tip to cut through Chip's skin, a whole conversation was held in his mind. _"This mouse thinks she can sneak up on us"_ The voice of Huggin echoed.

 _"Useless"_ Munnin pointed out. _"Doesn't she know we are Odin's eyes in this land of Midgard?"_

 _"She only knows she is about to kill our chipmunk, brother"_

 _"I'm tempted to let her do it, but then who would kill the serpent that roams our father's garden?"_

 _"You speak the truth. No other choice but to save our mortal partner again"_

 _"Rejoice, because our vengeance will be swift and will be bloody!"_

Both ravens commanded Chip's body to fall down in a roll right before the stabbing blade had any chance to pierce his organs, leaving only a nasty flesh wound. That and a shocked, incredulous thief behind.

"I-impossible!" Desiree stuttered witnessing the unnatural reflects of her opponent. "I stabbed you! You were supposed to be dead! I… never fail" Little by little, she grasped the reality in front of her: The trap had been set perfectly, the execution was flawless, the victim unaware death was just a breath away…

And yet there he was, standing up into a guard stance, grinding his teeth and sending a hateful glare down her way. Desiree froze in fear as an unexpected and disconcerting thought entered her mind. "This chipmunk… is he possessed by these magical swords?"

"Who… are you?" The thief asked disturbed. "Who the hell are you!?"

"I'm Chip Maplewood" he answered, but the voice that came out wasn't exactly his own. It had a strange, ghostly echo; one that sent shivers down the spine of everybody who listened him . Even Dale, loyal Dale, couldn't help but gulp down his breath and take a step back at the frightful way his friend spoke.

"Sacre…" Desiree's prayer was cut short by the sudden charge of the ranger. He came at her low and fast, very much like a snake, lashing the blades at his opponent below the knees. A dirty trick, no doubt, that took advantage of the height difference and the unnatural speed of the possessed chipmunk. The female thief came to realize she couldn't bend over to parry and deflect with the sword as fast as the ranger was pushing her to. The ferocity of the attacks didn't leave her room to do anything more than dodging.

To dodge or get maimed.

Finally, a right slash to the knee forced Desiree to raise her left leg up in a hurry. "You bastard!" She yelled out and jumped back to avoid a chained attack. One that never came. For her surprise, Chip dropped his swords and sprinted to grab her by the ankles right in mid-air. The thief lost her balance and fell to the ground with a loud thud. "Ugnh!"

Not even a second later, the raging mad ranger landed heavily on top of her. Then, to everybody's astonishment, the magical longswords materialized again in his paws, leaving trails of purple feathers on their wake. Once the blades were firmly in his grip, he crossed them like some scissors, threatening to cut the head of his foe off right there and without any ounce of mercy. In fact, he seemed to relish on the horrified look Desiree gave.

"Mercy, mercy!" Desiree managed to implore, but the wicked smile of her opponent told her none would be given.

As the swords shrieked against the cobblestones, the witnesses of the execution held their breath in anticipation.

"Chip, no!" Dale begged half covering his eyes.

On the opposite side, Pietro and the rest of the gang got ready for the inevitable and violent outcome. "Boss!"

Chip's victim closed her eyes the moment the cold edges grazed her neck. "Oh God!"

However, that was as far as the swords got to taste blood. And for a second, a very long second, everything and everyone fell silent. Desiree dared to open her big green eyes again, and found that Chip was staring back at her not with a mask of hate anymore, but with a smug victorious grin.

Inside the chipmunk's mind another battle -one far more important- had come to an end as well. _"What are you doing? Kill her now!"_ The raven ordered, to no avail. Chip kept his stance, motionless as a statue, in whole control of his body.

 _"The game is over"_ He coldly stated. _"Your minute has just passed. Now If you excuse me, 'll take it from here"_

 _"It… It can't be!"_

 _"Give us more time, 5 seconds more! No, 2 seconds more!"_

 _"Heh! No deal, Munnin. Now go back to the shadows and wait there"_

 _"Don't let her live, chipmunk! You must kill her!"_

 _"Do it, do it now!"_

Chip came to hear these and other desperate demands in the depths of his conscience as he slowly stood up. Despite the dissonant barrage of squeaky voices, the chipmunk managed to maintain enough self-control, at least enough to remember to disarm his downed foe before anything else. A quick swing sent the shortsword many steps away.

The pale and daunted Desiree didn't dare to move a muscle. Judging by the enigmatic grin of her opponent, he could just be looking for an excuse to finish the job. No, she wasn't ready to die yet, she still had to marry her Scottish aristocrat and leave France for good; she still had to… find the treasure buried in Adelaide Revenot's crypt. "I- I surrender, all right?" Her voice broke in a weep. "I surrender…"

Chip bent over to meet Desiree's eyes one last time, keeping the edge of the bloodthirsty sword a mere millimeter away from the delicate throat. "Where is Gadget?" He asked as slowly and composed as he could, lest his true feelings were used against him by the thief in a last moment ruse.

"You mean…"

"Yes, the witch!" He insisted baring his fangs out. An action that stirred up the ravens clinging to his soul. It didn't matter to him, he desperately needed that answer. "Where is she?"

"Les Halles!" She promptly confessed, as she witnessed the eyes of Chip igniting with a ghostly purple glow. "D'Allure Store!"

That glow, by the way, wasn't exactly a conscious action from Chip. It was a side effect of Huggin and Munnin's last futile effort to take control of their host and finish the job. Either way, it worked perfectly as a fright-inducing tongue loosener.

Quite satisfied with the answer, the ranger backed down and slowly joined his friend the bard. "We are leaving now" He declared glancing incensed not only at Desiree and her gang, but at all the people gathered around. "If you follow us, you'll end up the same… or worst"

Suddenly from way deep in the crowd, a shaky voice belonging to an elderly mouse raised over the heads of the alley citizens. "You demon! Leave this place at once!"

Chip paid her little mind, but softened his expression once he turned to his dearest friend. "Dale… come on, let's go" He said sheathing the maligned swords back in their scabbards. Only then he noticed the genuinely scared expression on the bard's face.

"Are you… Are you really Chip?"

That question hurt the ranger more than any cut or blow, but he sure as hell wouldn't show it. "Hmpf! And who else would I be?" He asked back with a cynical snort. "I swear it's me, Chip Maplewood! Come on, we still have to rescue Gadget, Tammy and Foxglove. I'll explain everything on the way"

Curiously, the order in which Chip named his female friends was proof enough for Dale. "All right" He nodded a bit more relieved. "But don't do that crazy glowing eyes trick on me, ok? It gives me the creeps. And… what happened to sir Monterey Jack?"

The crowd quickly parted ways to let the pair of cursed chipmunks flee away from their homes and their lives, leaving only the band of scavengers behind, collapsed with fear, pain and hopelessness. Not only their dreams of fame and fortune had fled away together with these two bounties, but their king wouldn't take this failure lightly. _"Might as well never return to Stone Coffer"_ Each one of them presaged. _"Rat Capone will execute me the moment I stepped in his courtyard"_

"The crypt" Desiree mumbled holding her head with the paws. "Forget these chipmunks and their witches. Let's just go to Revenot's crypt. Fortune will smile on us again!"


	10. Chapter 10 - A city inside a city

**Chapter 10: A city inside a city**

As soon as the last ray of light succumbed on the horizon, Gadget Hackwrench awoke from her demonic slumber. It was then that she realized she was in the foul-smelling arms of a brutish rat in pirate attires. The repulsed girl cursed her condition for the hundredth time and writhed with desperation against her captor. She would have screamed, of course, but the rags on her muzzle made that impossible. "Mggh! Mpph!"

"Oh, the witch finally awoke!" The rat – Absolom – exclaimed.

Trailing two steps behind, his shipmate Roldan felt shivers down his spine. "Calm down! Let's calm down! She is still tied up and gagged, right?"

"Gadget!" Foxglove, firmly gripped by Roldan, called out to her friend. The blonde mouse barely had time to look back to the pink bat before being pushed forward by her escort. These few seconds were enough for Foxy, though. Enough to make sure Gadget was as scared and confused as she was.

"Where are Dale and Tammy?" Foxglove finally gathered the courage to ask. "What did you do with them!?"

At the sole mention of the red nosed chipmunk's name, Roldan gulped down; such sound that wasn't lost to the bat's keen ears. "He… he should be dead"

"My Dale? Dead!?"

"Yes! He has to be dead!" Absolom yelled without much conviction. "If not by Desiree's blade, then by these wrathful humans and their murdering tools"

"Humans?" Both Foxglove and Gadget opened their eyes wide. "What just happened today? Where is Tammy?"

"That's enough, girl!" Roldan scolded her. "Shut your mouth for a while! Desiree will be happy to answer all your questions once she reunites with us!" Then, he glanced at his friend ahead of him. "She will reunite with us, right?"

"Of course she will, mate!" Absolom angrily answered over his shoulder, then his expression became somber and added in a whisper: "She has to"

As the night fell over the city, the group kept walking along increasingly dark streets, avoiding detection from humans and rodents alike. "Almost there" Absolom muttered to himself peering at the distance, at the dome of a building that rose ominously above every other in the neighborhood: Les Halles.

Built more than 500 years before, by command of a legendary king, Les Halles was the traditional central market of medieval Paris. The equivalent to a modern mall, this palace occupied several blocks wide right in the heart of the city and served as a shelter for merchants who came from all over the world to sell their wares to the people of the most populous city of Europe. Its enormous size, colorful ambience and regal splendor dwarfed the harbor market and took the breath away from visiting humans and smallfolk alike.

"Impressive, huh?" Absolom smiled quite amused at his three companions from the wilds, which could only nod back in awe at the immensity of the place.

Yet another breathtaking spectacle was in store for them. As soon as they crossed the arched gate they got engulfed by multitudes of rodents and insects from every known species roaming along the seemingly infinite corridors scavenging and quarreling for the leftovers at the feet of the market stands.

"So many of us…" Roldan pointed out marveled as he witnessed a brawl erupting between two gangs of mice over a pile of discarded meat. One group dressed in blue longcoats, the other wearing red kerchiefs. The showdown didn't last long, however, as a large group of local mice musketeers - Paris garrison - promptly arrived to keep the looting civilized and subdue the unruliest and loudest among the rabble.

The pirate in charge of escorting Foxglove twisted his nose with contempt. "Ugh, plenty of guards here"

"Of course!" Absolom responded and tugged Gadget closer to him. "Les Halles is like a city inside a city" He lectured. "I was born here, you know? Just like half of Paris' rodents have… Hell, even Desiree was born here!"

"What!? Drop dead, mate!"

"It's true, I swear it! So true that the hideout we are going to is her very birthplace"

"Nonsense! Desiree was born in Rouen! That's where her father lives, that's where her store of exotic imports is!" Roldan countered.

"Yeah yeah, she told you that herself, didn't she? there is a reason for that. You'll see"

Foxglove and Gadget could only listen and wonder.

One full hour passed by, with the group venturing into the darkest corridors of the market palace. From time to time, they would run next to dens of impoverished mice: most of them migrants, most of them malnourished. That's where the bounty posters of the witch of Saint Pierre and her evil companions adorned almost every pillar and wall. "Careful here" Roldan warned with a smirk. "I bet many of your ex-neighbors are in the lookout for your lovely companion now"

Absolom nodded over his shoulder and hid the witch's loosened bangs of blonde hair back into her hood, causing the mouse to shudder and shrink back, which amused her captor very much. "That's it witch, docile and quiet. Keep it that way and you'll live through the night"

Les Halles wasn't just a large collection of sales stands. It was also a neighborhood of workshops and established stores, even warehouses. In the foundations of one of those mortar and stone buildings the very first store of the D'Allure family was carved decades ago. The rats couldn't help but let out sighs of relief the moment they and their hostages reached the wooden doors of the abandoned place. They had arrived at their destination – safe, sound and without raising any suspicions-. However, their high hopes died the moment they opened the doors and found nobody was there to greet them.

'D'Allure shop of exotic imports' read the plaque. The place was completely abandoned. The ground floor might have been a store in the past, but now looked more like a dumpster, with all sort of forgotten trash covered in layers of dirt laying around. The place smelled of mold everywhere, as if the doors and windows hadn't been opened in a long time.

Absolom lighted up a lamp, and the sadness of the store increased by a tenfold. Some shelves had been vandalized and emptied already, while others at the back behind the counter had endured these assaults and tribulations with slightly better results. There were some footprints around marked on the dust, but they were too few, too old and didn't actually belong to adult rodents like Desiree and the crew. "Roldan, go check the upper floor" The rat ordered hiding his disappointment. "I'll take care of these girls"

"Aye, aye!" An anxious Roldan turned Foxglove to his partner, picked up and lighten a candle, and ventured deeper into the building.

This pause gave the girls time to take in the small details of the house they were in. Foxglove, for example, was quite sure nobody else was there besides them four - thanks to her echolocation senses - but decided to keep silence. From her point of view, the farther she were away from Roldan, the better. Brave Dale could come to rescue her at any moment, after all... and how could she explain being in the arms of a tall, muscular stranger?

While the pink bat shivered victim of her own imagination, Gadget became more and more intrigued by the long-forgotten objects that surrounded her. Many were undoubtedly from faraway lands, places the timid mouse could only dream to visit. If only her paws weren't tied together – and she were there as visitor and not as hostage -, she'd love to study and catalog each and every item in that house.

The witch's eyes suddenly got fixed on a tentacle that slipped out from Absolom's backpack. "Gustav?". Her tail whipped in joy as she realized her inherited cloak was indeed inside that bag.

Absolom didn't share the sentiment, though. "Oh, you cursed tentacle…" He shoved the octopus back into the backpack and into the folds of the magical cloth.

On that moment Roldan came into sight again. "This is not good, mate!" The younger rat shook his head with concern. "Not good at all! Boss isn't here, nobody is here! What are we going to do now?"

"Wait for her, what else?" His partner answered as he loudly put the backpack down on the floor, unwittingly raising a cloud of dust that made everyone cough and sneeze.

All the way back to the arched gates a young squirrel was just taking in the immensity of the place. "Goodness gracious! The whole of Saint Pierre could fit inside this market!"

Tammy Lombardi, weary as she was after spending the whole day chasing down the rats who took her friends away, took a deep breath and ventured into the maze. It didn't take long, though, for the brave girl to find a bounty glued to a wall with a detailed picture of her face on it. "Oh come on!" She protested. "Here too? How many of these were printed?"

Realizing she had been too loud for her own good, she turned around only to be startled by a local musketeer of curly blonde hair and red eyes who was approaching to her inquisitively. "Ups! I better leave!" Before the soldier could get any closer, the squirrel quickly turned around a corner and lost herself in the crowd. Not even her fluffy tail was discernible among these lines of rodents of many ages, sizes and species walking in all directions carrying food and shiny thingies.

Tammy would spend the next couple of hours roaming aimlessly in the corridors of Les Halles, too afraid to ask the denizens for clues on her friends' whereabouts, as she found more and more bounty posters that promised huge amounts of gold for her head.

"Ugh! If only I could rip them off!" She complained sourly stepping away discretely. "But that wouldn't be wise"

Tired, hungry and disheartened, the squirrel finally stopped walking and slumped down against a wall. It was past midnight and her eyes were starting to feel heavy, but she had no intentions of falling asleep in in such a filthy and dangerous place. "This has been a horrible day" She muttered to herself running a paw wearily across her hair. "Foxglove, Gadget… Where are you?"

As she fought off the urge to sleep, a pleasant smell came to her nose. "Mmh, camembert! it reminds me of home…"

Together with the smell, a noise like thunder came her way. Together with the noise, a giant camembert wheel came rolling down the corridor trampling everything in its path. "Kyaaah!" The startled girl barely had time to jump back to her feet and press herself against the wall on tiptoes. The smelly wheel passed by a pair of millimeters away from her nose and ended up crashing loudly and disintegrating against a nearby crate.

To make it even more bizarre, two horde of rodents arrived at the scene almost immediately: one group wearing blue longcoats, the other red kerchiefs. They even brought their banners and planted them facing each other. Insults were professed, threats were sworn, weapons were picked, and a nasty brawl over the mountain of smashed camembert broke loose.

Tammy was about to flee away from these hunger-crazed rodents when a mighty scream froze her in place.

"Ch-e-e-e-se!"

Just like a cannonball, so entered Monterey Jack into the fray, pushing over the ruffians who dared to look at the morsels of that tasty, tasty camembert. "Bunch of burglars, get your filthy paws away from my cheesssse!"

The girl witnessed agape as the raving knight beat down scores of red and blue rodents with only his bare fists, with no distinction of color or banners. At some point the gangs seemed to forget their differences and charged as one against the mustachioed mouse, even managed to pile over him and bring him to his knees, but alas, it was all for naught. As if powered up by the proximity of cheese to his nose, Monterey sprung up triumphant sending the bunch of beggars into the air.

"Mine, I tell you!" The knight roared as he dived again into the bigger portion of camembert he could find to devour it. By then his opponents were either writhing on the ground in pain or leaving the scene disorderly, carrying their injured comrades away from that gluttonous knight from foreign lands.

On the battleground stood only the banner-man of the red mob – an one-armed female rat – utterly shocked at this outcome and hesitating about leaving or staying. On the last moment she took heart, brandished a discarded rusted nail as a makeshift sword, and lashed out at the distracted Scottish mouse in a desperate ruse.

"Sir Monterey, look out!" Tammy shouted out from the distance.

Fortunately, the big mustachioed mouse had a guardian angel protecting him from above. Zipper, the scout fly, descended like a lightning just in time to block and deflect the attack with his needle in a display of expert fencing. Another pair of fast swings were enough to disarm the one-armed rat, who had no choice but to give up and leave the place – and the food – to Monterey and company.

Tammy couldn't help but feel pity for her as their eyes met for a second. "People here are at a constant war for food" She concluded with some guilt, as she had never had to fight tooth and tail for food in her life, even these terrible last days were a far cry from the daily life of the denizens of this overpopulated place.

Her eyes recovered his optimist bright, however, the moment she stepped onto the cheesy mess and found Zipper scolding his big friend buzzing all over his head. "Sir Zipper! Sir Monterey!"

"Tammy!" The fly opened his eyes wide and zoomed to greet her. "Gosh, I knew I had heard your voice!"

"Lil' lass!" Bulky Monterey struggled to stand up, stuffed as he was, and even then had to take a second to get his breath back. "What… what are you doing in this place?"

"We thought you'd be imprisoned in the inquisitorial palace by now" The fly added quite hastily.

"No, I escaped!" The girl ran to hug the knight's wide torso. "Thank God you are here!" She sobbed. "Foxglove, Gadget, Dale… We have to rescue them!"

"Aye, we will!" Monterey comforted her. "That's why we are here, little one". Suddenly his face, as well as zipper's, grew serious. "Say, is Chip with you?"

"Chipper? No… isn't he in a prison in Rouen? I wanted to go back there to rescue him! Please tell me he is all right! I miss him so much!"

The big mouse held the sobbing and trembling girl in his arms. "Lassy, please calm down!"

Zipper placed a paw on the girl's shoulder. "Good news then! Chip isn't in Rouen anymore, he escaped almost one week ago. We followed him all the way here"

"Is that true? Chipper is here in Paris as well?

After a pause, both knights nodded. "Must be"

Tammy answered with a faint grin that soon grew into a full dreamy smile. "Must be, huh? Then… Then I think I met with him earlier today. Yes, he must have been the one who saved me from the humans and then ran towards them again! Only my brave Chipper would do something like that"

"He really is one in a million" Zipper whispered cryptically.

Monterey shared the sentiment, clasping and unclasping his injured paw.

"And he trusted me with saving Gadget and Foxglove! I can't fail him! Please, let's go find them! I followed them and their captors all the way to this place! They must be nearby, perhaps hidden in some inn or hostel"

"That sounds like a good conclusion" Zipper rose above their heads and looked around. "If memory serves, there is a whole quarter full with hostels and taverns on that direction"

"And that's where we will go!" Monterey puffed. "But first, we will go on this other direction!" He pointed to the exact opposite.

"Huh? Why over there, Sir Monterey?"

"Oh please!" Zipper frowned. "Don't tell me…"

"I absolutely need to make sure she is all right!"

Tammy looked back and forth confused. "She?"

"His fiancée" The fly explained quite upset.

"Aye, my beautiful lady is missing!" Monterey lamented. "She didn't come back to Rouen as expected, now her father and I are deeply worried about her. They still have a place a few blocks away from here, so I wanted to check it out"

Then the bulky knight knelt to meet the girl eye to eye, grabbed her paws in his and send a pleading look. "Please, lass, grant me this wish… Let me go into that house and set my mind at ease. Only then I'll have the strength to save you and your friends from any harm!"

The blushed Tammy looked away sheepishly. "Oh you don't – You don't have to be so dramatic, Sir Monterey. Sure, let's go and take a look!"

"God bless you, lil' lass!" He sprang into action with renewed energies. "All right, follow me guys! I promise this won't take long!"

The new party of knights and cleric made their way back into the dark corridors of Les Halles. Unsurprisingly, its denizens now looked at Monty and Zipper with a mix of fear and reverence, and more than a few times they retreated to their crevices and holes. "Oh no, I won't be able to ask this people for leads anymore!" Tammy lamented.

Zipper promptly flew to her side. "Don't worry! You can count with us now! Monty and I will help you look for these pirates in every inn and tavern of this damned place"

Then, the fly buzzed his way to Monterey's satchel and back to the girl. The big mouse barely cast a glance at him. "Here, Tammy" He handed the cleric some bread. "Eat something, a long night awaits"

The squirrel's eyes gleamed as she took the small piece of food "It does, right? Thank you, Sir Zipper!"

"Just Zipper" The fly smiled as he left the girl's side and flew to the Scottish mouse's ear. "Monty?" He whispered.

"What's up, pally?"

"What will we do if we run into our captain?"

A moment of careful thought later, Monterey answered. "Meh! Cap'n Patrick and the rest of the troop must be at the other extreme of this place, looking for Chip like the obsessed lizard he is. It's unlikely we'll run into them out of a sudden"

"Ok… and what will we do if we run into Chip?"

After a wince and a quick glance at the hungry girl behind them, Monterey's face grew somber. "Honestly, I don't know"

"It's difficult to be a soldier with a conscience, huh?"

"It is, pally, it is"

Tammy caught up with the duo of knights, a naughty smile on her pretty face. "Did I just heard you mentioned 'Chip'?"

"Uh, well…"

"We…"

"You haven't told me yet how did you and Chipper escape from Rouen" The girl insisted as she finished her dinner. "Did you charge through the ranks of these horrible inquisitors like a battering ram? They had no chance against the three of you working together!"

Zipper promptly interdicted. "Actually, Chip found a hidden backdoor"

"Oh, that sounds like something Chipper would do"

"At the end we only had to fight once. Didn't we, Monty?"

"Aye, but it was a bad enough fight". Monterey again clenched and unclenched his left fist.

"But you won and got free, that's what matters" Tammy chirped.

The duo of knights looked at each other, then gave the girl some fake smiles.

"And how did you got separated from Chip?" Tammy asked in a burst of interest. "What could have happened?"

"You see…" Zipper stuttered and turned to Monterey for help.

"Oi!" The mustachioed mouse pointed forward. "Look at this, we've arrived!"

"Huh?" The girl's attention was drawn towards a two-stories tall rodent's house carved in the darkest corner of a workshop. Her eyes then made the name in the plaque above the door and opened wide in shock. "D-D'Allure?"

"Aye! 'D'Allure's store of exotic imports'" Monterey straight declared. "First property of the family of my beloved Desiree!"

While the big mouse rushed to the front door, the squirrel girl froze in her spot. "Tammy, are you all right?" The loyal Zipper asked coming back to her.

"Desiree D'Allure… is his fiancée?"

"Uh hum" The fly nodded. "Weird girl, from a family of merchants fallen in disgrace"

"Slender, tall, thick accent?" Tammy asked growing pale, causing Zipper to frown.

"Crikey! What the hell is going on here!?" The voice of Monterey thundered from inside the house. Zipper and Tammy rushed alarmed to his aid only to find a most bizarre scene at play: A pair of brawny rats dressed in sailor attires, caught in the middle of a poker game; Foxglove and Gadget, tied up behind the counter and looking back at Monterey in disbelief.

"Hey, fatass! This is private property, get lost!" Absolom ordered slamming his fist on the table.

But our knight didn't – couldn't – move at all. Astonished as he was, eyes going from the helpless girls to the pair of ruffians and back, it took him plenty of seconds to process the situation unfolding in that room.

His silence only angered the pirates more. "Are you even listening? Lose yourself!"

On that moment Monterey's companions crossed the doorway. "Oh my god!" Tammy gasped in surprise. "Foxglove, Gadget!"

Now it was the turn for Roldan and Absolom to freak out. "The cook! Where is Desiree? What did you to do her?"

"Desiree?" Monterey stuttered, rage and confusion building up.

"Aye mate, Desiree D'Allure, terror of the Sienne! You better not cross her! Now, hand over the girl and be on your way!"

Instinctively the squirrel sought refuge behind the knight. "I don't fear you or Desiree anymore! Release my friends, you rats!"

"Fool girl! We'll present your fluffy mangled tail to our boss!" Roldan lunged forward in order to snatch Tammy away from her companions, but his footwork was halted by the powerful fist of Monterey, who landed a hook right on the rat's abdomen – powerful enough to send him some steps back and down to his knees-. "Offf!" Roldan grimaced, out of air and dazzed.

"Shut up! Speak not the name of my fiancée! She is not a violent criminal like you lot! No, she's not!"

"Fiancee?" Absolom managed to say a moment before the irate Monterey Jack landed a crossed blow on him, one so powerful that sent the rat stumbling back against the table, which got crushed under his weight. "Urggh!"

Next to them, Roldan managed to rise to his feet again. "You (cough) bastard…" The younger rat joined the fight with Slipping his arms underneath the mouse's armpits and wrapping his paws around the back of the neck. "I got you!"

Monterey defended against the younger pirate with a pair of rib-breaking elbow strikes. The stubborn Roldan endured them, so the mustachioed mouse was forced to run and stomp him against the nearest wall, breaking some shelves in the maneuver.

Tammy overcame the initial shock of this battle between juggernauts and ran to help her frightened friends at the back of the counter. She was just untying Foxglove when the trio of muscled fighters came crashing against the wall next to her. "Whoa! Careful!"

Zipper arrived in a flash to help her get Gadget free. "Tammy, this is getting dangerous!" He buzzed as he made short work of the witch's bindings. "Go now!"

"Tammy, wait!" Gadget held the cleric by the paw. "That backpack! The grimoire is in there!"

"Got it, witch!"

Out of the corner of his eye, Monterey made the silhouettes of the three girls making his way to the exit. Then he chivalrously stepped between them and the pirates, effectively covering their escape. "Right, guess what! You are under arrest, pirates! The knight flexed his muscles. "For the crime of abducting and imprison two girls against their will! In my girlfriend's house, to make it worse!"

"What? You are delusional!" Roldan raised his guard. "Our boss Desiree would never date a chubby mouse like you!"

Absolom just frowned and got ready.

"Stop calling her boss!" Monterey let out a scream of rage and charged against the duo of criminals like a wild boar. The reckless Roldan stepped forward to meet him, but was pushed violently aside by the mouse's mighty shoulder. Absolom, veteran brawler, was able to hold his ground against the knight's tackle by planting his feet firmly on the floor. After an initial barrage of blows, they both got engrappled in a wrestling deadlock. The planks of the floor creaked and tore apart as both contenders dug their heels in them as they tried to take the other down to their knees.

Roldan tried to rejoin the battle again, but this time it was Zipper and his needle-rapier who stopped him cold. "Get away, you filthy fly!" He growled, then got ahold of a wooden stick that used to be part of the table and swung it at the scout once, twice and thrice. All in vain. The fly just dodged the stick over and over, each time countering with a new scratch in the muscled rat's fingers. "Ugghn!" Roldan finally let go his weapon, as the pain became unbearable.

"Had enough?" The little Zipper scoffed smugly. "Ready to surrender?"

By any response, the brutish rat lashed out with a fierce crossed punch. Unfazed, the scout merely buzzed around the arm, leaving yet another cut. Another fast strike came in. This time Zipper flew up, causing Roldan to smash the last of the remaining shelves in the wall. A wizard's crystal ball – fake or real, none of them would ever know – came rolling down and broke loudly in a thousand pieces. This noise stunned Zipper badly, and Roldan knew that was his only chance. Unfortunately for the pirate, it was a trap. The treacherous fly shifted aside less than a second before the claw made contact, causing the rat to step on the shards of glass right below him. "Arggh!" Roldan yelled out in pain, and fell to the side grabbing his injured feet unceremoniously. He ended up landing on some broken shelves and littered goods, all of them adding noise to his sound defeat.

Meanwhile, Monterey and Absolom kept on locked in a contest for domination, holding each other's wrists just like a pair of wrestlers from the ancient greek Olympics. Both of them buffing in exhaustion, none of them willing to give up a single step back.

Zipper made a move to put an end to this impasse, but was stopped by the roaring voice of Monterey. "Stay back, Zip! I got this…"

Absolom smirked mockingly at such impertinent declaration. "Hey, I just realized who you are… yes, you must be that rich guy from Scotland Desiree talks so much about, the one who will take her out of this country and into a great life of luxury"

"And I will, mate!" Monterey declared among beads of sweat. "So she won't have to keep company with criminals like you anymore! I will liberate her!"

Exhausted as he was, Absolom still found energies to laugh strenuously. "Hahaha! You clueless moron! The Desiree D'Allure I know will dry you out of money like the pirate queen she is!"

"Liar…"

"Then she will travel around the world with us at her side!"

"Liar!" With an herculean effort born of rage, the scottish mouse managed to lift his opponent up in the air and held him there in for a long second. Both Zipper and Roldan held their breath in amazement at such incredible maneuver.

"Whoa, whoa!" The rat shouted in anguish"Put me down, put me down!"

"As you wish, mate!"

And put him down Monterey did, with extreme force and right on top of his pirate companion. The wooden planks were crushed and the entire house trembled, sending the dust collected in all these years up on the air like a fog of dirt that obscured the victory of the mustachioed champion.

In fact, once the cloud settled down, only Monterey and Zipper stood there in the middle of the chaos. Their opponents were, for all practical purposes, out of combat.

However, Monterey felt there were still questions to be answered, so he picked up the defeated Absolom by the shirt collar and bared his fangs at him. "Where is Desiree?" The knight demanded to know. "Where is my girlfriend!?"

"She… she should be here already!" The pirate, hurting all over, stammered. "Please don't hurt me!"

"You blasted, rotten, son of a…! You dragged her into this, didn't you? I'll make you pay for it!"

"Monty, don't!" Zipper put himself between them. "What would Desiree say if she saw you? What would Tammy say?"

"You… you are right, pally" Monterey let go his opponent, who again fell to the ground loudly. "I lost my temper for a second" He then stood up and ran his paw over the face. "Wait, where is Tammy? And Foxglove? Gadget?"

"Outside… waiting?"

Both knights hurried out of the house only to find the trio of girls on their knees, paws over their heads, surrounded by musketeers from Rouen's garrison – Monterey and Zipper's squadmates-. "What the…" the fly's mouth fell open. "How did they got here?"

Monterey was as shocked as his friend at this terrible turn of events.

Suddenly came a voice that froze their blood. "Ah, just the mercenaries I was looking for" Patrick Lefevre greeted them with a martial salute and a triumphant smile. He walked to the duo flanked by a blond musketeer Tammy recognized as the one she hid from back at Les Halles gates.

"Sir!" Both Monterey and Zipper stood up straight and answered the salute. The looks of shock and disbelief of the captured girls at their feet made them avert their gaze. At the same time, the situation amused the lizard to no end.

"At ease! I won't lie, Sir Jack, I'm impressed!" The commanding officer declared with a wide grin as he turned to inspect the prisoners closer. "Three runaway bounties captured in a single night! One of them the famous witch of Saint-Pierre!"

The sole mention of that name triggered collective gasps from the surrounding crowd of onlookers. Some of them even left the place at once, overcame with fear and muttering prayers. The undaunted Patrick, on the other hand, bent down to meet Gadget eye to eye and whispered: "We meet again, witch. And this time under more favorable circumstances" Then he pulled her closer by the dress, making her wince. "Now, if only your friend Chip Maplewood were here, so I could kill him in front of pretty blue eyes of yours!"

"L-leave him alone!" Gadget begged. "He hasn't done anything!"

"On the contrary! He has murdered four of my soldiers already!"

"What?" Gadget became pale and speechless upon hearing such heinous accusation. "No, He wouldn't…" Then a vision tinted in red assaulted her; vivid images of his lost friend, his expression twitched with bloodlust, wielding a pair of purple swords on the edge of a cliff against a trio of frightened musketeers. A fourth was already dead at his feet, no doubt cut down by these otherworldly weapons. The mirage then degenerated into a whirlwind of blood and horror-stricken screams. "No, Stop!" The witch woke up from the nightmare completely disturbed. "Why, why are you showing me this!"

"You lie!" Tammy's voice thundered with conviction. "My Chipper would never do something as cruel like that!"

"My Lass Tammy… cap'n Patrick is telling the truth" Monterey tried to settle the girl down by putting his paw on her shoulder.

"Listen to the knight, young innkeeper. He is the one that captured that fallen ranger that night and brought him to me"

That revelation made Tammy send an incredulous stare up to Monterey Jack, whose low gaze confirmed the lizard's words. "How could you?" The squirrel violently rejected the comforting paw of the big mouse, then stood up to confront not only Patrick, but the soldiers and the judging people gathered around. "Even, even if that's true, so what!? Four, ten or one hundred, I will always forgive Chipper! Always!"

Upon the dead silence of both her friends and her enemies, the squirrel spoke one last time in a darker, ominous tone. "He is already here in Paris, you know? It's only a matter of time until he comes to rescue us from you, your soldiers and your murderous inquisition!"

"Believe me girl, I'm actually counting on him to come out and face me one last time. I really do! But enough of this! Men, take them back to our camp. Keep a close eye on the witch, at least until dawn"

"Yes, sir!" At the blue lizard's command, the prisoners were picked up and escorted away under a torrent of gossiping murmurs and curious gazes. Truly, this wasn't a daily occurrence, even by the standards of the chaotic rodent city of Les Halles. Gadget, for example, was granted a triple escort that forced the people away from her as the column hurried their way to the nearest exit gates. Patrick could hardly blame those who wanted to take a last look at the famous witch who burned to death a dozen of musketeers and turned to stone an important hero of the church. Still, a sting of doubt bugged the composed lizard, as this girl didn't struck him as the type who'd kill anyone even in self-defense. He couldn't help but wonder then if that report of an evil twin sister was true, as the mustachioed knight declared some days ago.

Patrick was pondering the disturbing possibility of a second blonde witch loose in the country when musketeers from the Les Halles garrison – their hosts and guides in this maze of poverty– came out from the abandoned store with the pirate rats in chains. "Captain Lefevre!" Their commander called. "What should we do with these criminals?"

"Kidnappers!" Monterey growled indignant. "Robbers! Deviants! Throw them in the deepest corner of La Bastille!"

"Silence, Sir Jack!" The lizard signaled as he studied the older rat's face. "Hey, aren't you Absolom Mousenegger, former mercenary?"

"Never met him" He answered turning the head away.

Within the blink of an eye, the vexed Patrick had the edge of his sword on the brutish rat's throath. "Pft! You are a terrible liar, Absolom! As bad as your dead king"

"W-What did you just say?"

"Capone, that poor excuse of a king, is dead" Patrick explained with morbid relish. "His last followers threw him off a tower the moment my army knocked on his keep's doors"

"No, it can't be! I don't believe you"

Patrick just shrugged and walked away. "Ask him for the details tomorrow, when you meet him again in hell. Captain Pierre, they are all yours"

An old mouse dressed in a red and black musketeer uniform saluted back. "Thanks for your help, captain Lefevre! Good luck out there!" Then he turned towards his own troops. "Men, take this pirates to the prison!"

Monterey Jack stepped forward to intervene as both rats refused to walk and instead fought to get free from their chains. Patrick again raised his paw to keep him at bay. "Let the local garrison deal with them, we have our own prizes to take care of. Back to our camp"

"… Aye, sir"

With that command, the Rouen's garrison left the place. Monterey Jack only had a pair of seconds to whisper a sad goodbye to her love's birthplace, before being interrupted by his captain's musings. " Sir Jack, I must admit I wasn't too keen on your idea to come search for Maplewood and his associates here in Les Halles, but by the king's curled wig, it turned out splendid! Excellent work!"

It wasn't often that the sadistic commander of Rouen's garrison complimented his subordinates, much less with a pat on the back as Patrick suddenly did, which only added another notch to the knight's unspoken grief.

Many hours later, with the dawn on the horizon announcing the beginning of a new day, the abandoned store of exotic imports received yet another pair of cloaked visitors.

"This must be the place" Chip Maplewood stated catching his breath. "It has to be"

His companion, Dale Oakmont, was so tired and sleepy by then that couldn't help but to lean on the nearest wall. "'D'Allure exotic imports'" He read out loud. "Just like the old lizard said. It was nice of him to point us to this place, and to lend us these cloaks"

"Sure" The black-nosed chipmunk nodded curtly, his attention on the details of the scene ahead of him. "But something is off… this whole place is too quiet"

As soon as he mentioned that, the rasping voices of the norse ravens echoed on his mind. "Looks like you are late, hero! As you can see, everybody left already!"

"Slow chipmunk couldn't catch up with his girlfriend! If only you were a raven, eh?"

Chip gritted his teeth and clasped the pommels of his swords, an action that didn't go unnoticed by his companion. "Hey, are these ravens pestering you again?" Dale asked with sincere concern. "Don't listen to them"

"I know, but there is some truth hidden among all the poison they spout" The ranger knelt and took a good look at the ground. "There is nobody here or even nearby. However, one could tell something big happened earlier. Lots of footprints are gathered around the main door disorderly" He pointed out. "While those others are coming and going in quite the martial order"

More disturbingly, Monterey Jack's unique footprints were also there, no doubt about it. A clue Chip kept to himself.

"So you wanna go inside and take a look?"

"Yeah, lets… wait! Someone comes!"

Both chipmunks barely had time to hide in the shadows as a musketeer from the night watch – apparently, given that he was carrying a rodent sized torch – came around the corner and stopped right in front of the store, as if to recall in silence some event from before.

"He looks as if he knows what happened, doesn't he?" Dale whispered right behind his friend. "I bet he knows!"

"I'd bet that too" Chip nodded and then, grinned wolfishly. "Let's capture him!"

"Hold on!" The red-nosed chipmunk grabbed his friend by the shoulder. "Violence is not the answer to every problem, you maniac! Leave this to me!"

"Maniac?" Chip whispered back indignant, but by then Dale was already past him and getting rid of the old sailor cloak.

"Ahoy there!" The bard loudly called, much to his hidden partner's chagrin.

"Who's there?" The musketeer turned around and shed light on the strange, bombastic and multicolored chipmunk coming his way. "Huh? Who are you?"

"Poe is my name, poetry is my game!" The chipmunk expertly lied as he struck some random chords from his lute. "Seriously, I'm just a bard who came to see the place everybody is talking about tonight"

"Ah yes" The guard let out a weary yawn and took some steps towards the abandoned store, the plaque dangling above as if welcoming him. "Unbelievable, right? I've always said this store is cursed, double cursed now"

"Oh do tell! I've never been in this part of Les Halles before. So this place has a story?"

The guard crossed his arms and stared at the now opened door, recalling older, sadder times. "Some fifteen years ago a family of merchants used to live here, you know? Husband, wife, boy and girl. 'Exotic imports' as the sign reads. Objects from the colonies and beyond, marvels to the eyes of people who have never left this city. Oh boy, everybody wanted to put their paws on trinkets from these faraway places, so the business prospered. The parents even bought a second state somewhere else and moved, leaving the elder son in charge"

On that moment Dale felt a pebble impacting on his back. From the shadows an impatient Chip urged him to urge the guard to get to the point. By response, Dale made a 'Calm down' sign with the palms. "How interesting! What happened next?" He asked joining the guard again.

"Well, the boy then went and perished at sea during one of these reckless adventures, leaving this store neglected. By then he had gained some ill reputation for trading with… witchcraft artifacts. That greedy mouse, he even got a visit from the inquisition prior to his last travel. It was a huge scandal. And now, the famed witch of Saint Pierre got captured in this same house! Coincidence? I think not!"

"Wowie Zowie! So the gossips were true? The witch of Saint Pierre was captured here? By who?"

"Musketeers from Rouen. They tracked the witch all the way here and captured her under our noses. We musketeers from Paris garrison only got to keep the pirates she was traveling with"

"And where did these musketeers take the witch? Are they still around?"

"Well" The guard rubbed his chin a pair of seconds. "They mentioned their camp, wherever is it. Nevermind, kid. I bet they will deliver that witch and her companions to the inquisitors this same day. Good riddance, I say! That witch should have chosen Les Innocents to hide instead! Now I can't take her seductive blue eyes out of my head! God, I need to go to sleep soon"

"Uhm, did you say companions? So the witch wasn't alone?"

After a moment of pondering the reason for the bard's nervous smile, the guard continued. "Yes, yes, a pair of girls got taken away along with the witch. A pink bat and a fluffy squirrel. What a shame, huh?"

"A shame indeed" Dale shook his head and took a step back. "Well good sir, I think I've got enough material to work with for days to come. And look at the hour! It's time I take my leave". He made a courteous bow, turned around and walked away as composed as he could. Trepidation, however, was devouring him from inside.

Only many hours later and right in the middle of his breakfast this musketeer from the night watch did recognize the bard that chatted with him earlier at dawn. Dale Oakmond, the one with a bounty of three hundred gold nuggets on his head. "Triple curse, dammit!"


	11. Chapter 11 - Palace of the inquisition

**Chapter 11 – The palace of the inquisition**

Foxglove had spent the last couple of hours fighting off the natural urge to sleep. Not today, not today when she was surrounded by so many hostile people. The sunlight found her arrested and held hopelessly in a cage together with Tammy and Gadget. Escape was impossible, as around them stood an entire battalion of musketeers who kept their eyes on the three prisoners at every moment not only out of duty, but also out of fear.

Fear for the witch among them.

The fact that Gadget had succumbed to her enchanted sleep – not without a fight, one that inspired Foxy to resist as well – did little to appease the nervousness of the troops. Gadget was, after all, the devilish witch of crystal blue eyes who killed many of their comrades in that night of terror when the fields between Saint Pierre and Rouen were set aflame.

On the other side, Foxglove couldn't help but chuckle at the sight of the sleeping Tammy resting her head on the witch's shoulder.

The musketeers' camp was located in the deepest corner of a stable nearby Place Dauphine, the very center of Paris. On that late morning humans and horses had already gone out to do their daily chores, and the building was quite silent. The camp, however, was bustling with activity as Patrick's troops were getting ready for another long march across the city.

Zipper the fly buzzed around his fellow soldiers on his way to deliver a special order to his friend Monterey Jack. The pair of mercenaries had chosen the very edge of the encampment to place their sleeping bags and light a small fire, on the chance they could sneak out back to Les Halles on the early morning. Unfortunately, this plan didn't come to fruition. The sun rose and found Monterey Jack deeply asleep, completely exhausted from the events of the long previous day. And now, Zipper found him barely awake, hunched over and brooding with the eyes fixed on a bowl of soup – cheese soup, as the smell revealed –. Amazingly, the soup was half finished.

As his worried companion landed on the shoulder, Monterey offered him a quick glance and some words in a gloomy tone. "I dreamed of her again, pally. For the life of me I can't remember it but I know I dreamed of her. I have this… fleeting sensation it was a nice dream where we were together and we were happy. I just can't remember it"

Zipper said nothing. He just sat on the shoulder and waited in solemn silence as the big mouse slurped his soup in small bits and big sighs. Once Monterey finished and put the bowl aside, the small fly stood straight and spoke: "Captain Lefevre wants us to escort Foxglove to his tent"

"You could have told me right away…" The mustachioed knight answered with a weak colluding smile.

His friend just crossed arms and shrugged. "Why ruin your breakfast with a reminder of the dastardly task of the day?"

"The first of many, you mean" Monterey shook his head as he stood up. A deep breath and a creaking back stretch later, the knight fastened a greatsword to his back. "This has to end someday" He said growing incensed. "We are supposed to be Scottish heroes! But then again, how should a hero deal with an order to imprison young harmless witches?"

Zipper took a moment to reflect on the mouse's words. "Tammy and Foxglove could be innocent victims in this whole mess, but no doubt that strange girl Gadget is knee-deep into witchcraft"

"Aye, and her love-struck chipmunk won't stop at anything to save her. As lil' lass Tammy said yesterday… he is coming"

Some minutes later, the mercenaries were guiding the small pink bat to the big tent on the opposite side of the camp, as ordered. "Gotta say, I was surprised to find you awake, Foxy" The fly casually observed.

Tired as she was, the rogue still managed to send darting stares at her guides. "It's… Foxglove for you, guys. I can't believe you are still working with these ruffians, after everything we suffered together!"

Monterey scratched the back of his neck finding the right words "Please, lassy! It's not that simple!"

"It sure is! Have you forgotten our battle against Gadget's sister, Lawhinie? Tammy saved you from that murdering spell! Now you keep her behind bars, ready to deliver her to your inquisition bosses!"

"Believe me, I'd gladly take her out of that cage and set her free! But me and Zipper are hired knights! We have to follow orders and fulfill our duty!" I…" Here the big mouse stopped and gulped down. "I can't help you escape. I can't break the contract or the laws, I have to think on myself and…"

"Desiree D'Allure?" The bat offered after reading the heartbeats of her captor.

"Aye" His shoulders slumped. "Desiree D'Allure. My fiancée, my wife, my future. What a cruel test from above, to make me choose between my beloved girlfriend and a girl wrongly accused"

"I… understand. I wouldn't know what to do either if my future with Dale got in jeopardy" Then she looked up to meet Monterey's eyes. "Or rather, I know exactly what would I do"

Both bat and mouse fell in silence for a pair of seconds.

"Let's move on, guys" Zipper finally interjected. "We still have to meet with our captain, remember?"

"Agreed, pally. Let's just go and see what Patrick and the future hold for all of us"

The commander's tent, with its bright black and white colors, stood at the other end of the camp, propped up with four sticks and weighed down with stakes. A pole with the garrison's banner – A silver mouse carrying a halberd on the shoulder over a red background, loosely based in Rouen's own coat of arms – hung down lazily on that windless morning.

Monterey and his companions found a single musketeer on guard duty at the entrance. "Good morning, Peter" The bulky mouse saluted from the distance.

"Sir!" The alluded musketeer promptly squared up and answered the salute. However, the moment he noticed the pink bat walking at the knight's side a shiver assaulted him from head to toes. A shiver that made him grip his spear tighter. "Uh, that prisoner, the witch's companion…"

"Captain's orders" Zipper made clear. "Let us pass"

A sizzling voice came from inside the tent. "Peter, let them in!"

"Yes, sir!" The guard moved aside as commanded, allowing the trio to come inside, but Foxglove could still feel the stare of mistrust over her – nevermind his racing heartbeats-. That guard was actually expecting her to perform a black magic spell at any given moment, as if bats from the tribes of the wilds didn't have a bad enough reputation.

The inside of the tent was the total opposite of lavish. Some blankets with a backpack as pillow on a side; a feathered hat perched on a hook; A rodent-sized table with maps, bounty notices and breakfast leftovers on top. The place didn't even have carpets on the ground.

"Sir Jack, Sir Zipper…" The blue lizard at the opposite side of the table acknowledged them raising his eyes from the maps.

"Sir!" Both mercenaries stood straight.

"And our lovely prisoner, of course! And you came here on your own feet. Shouldn't you be sleeping at his late hour of the day? I must confess, I was mentally prepared to watch Sir Jack coming in here with you in his arms, like the chivalrous knight he is" He quipped with a mischievous smile.

Both Monterey and Foxglove turned red. "I-I'd never allow that! What would my dear Dale say!" The girl furiously shook her head.

"Ah yes, Dale Oakmont…" Patrick went through the bunch of bounties until the picture of the red-nosed chipmunk popped out. "Haven't met him in person yet, but Eaglewood - your father - told me a lot about him"

In a single second, Foxglove went from blushed red to pale white. "Father? Is… is he here?"

"No, he isn't here"

"Oh, thank goodness!" The bat sighed relieved. "Dad and I… Wait a minute, how did you meet each other?"

"Sir Jack, bring a seat to this girl. Yes, sit down, please. The truth is, we met Eaglewood and his hordes of bats during the siege of Stone Coffer. Apparently, we were both laying waste to that place in the same night for our own reasons"

"That's… how?"

"Isn't it obvious? He was there looking for you! Words of your imprisonment travelled fast to his ears, and so he rallied three entire tribes of bats to rescue you from that nest of thieves and cutthroats. And of course, to bring your kidnapper Dale Oakmont to justice!"

"What, what, what!?" The bat sprang up twice her height out of pure shock. Once she landed again on the seat, she covered her face in shame. "Oh god, dad!"

"Meanwhile, me and Rouen's musketeers went there to rescue a member of the inquisition kept prisoner by that despicable king Capone. We soon found it was most convenient to join forces to siege the castle day and night non-stop. A deal that soon bore fruits"

"I heard that Capone is dead. By his own servants"

"People tend to change allegiances when threatened to be burned alive together with their king…"

"How horrible!"

"It does the trick. Thanks to your father's help the whole business was over in a pair of nights with very few casualties from our side. We were able to ride sooner to Paris in search of you lot. That's why I feel I owe Eaglewood a favor…"

After a pondering pause, Patrick declared. "Foxglove of Duclair cave, consider yourself free"

Monterey, Zipper and Foxglove gasped in unison. "I'm free? Free to go?"

"Correct. Take the next boat home, girl. Make sure you don't get in trouble in the way and send my greetings to your father. Sir Zipper. Escort her out to the street"

"Yes, Sir!"

"No, wait!" Foxglove waved franctically. "What about my friends? What about my boyfriend?"

"You better get new friends, because that pair of witches will never leave the inquisitorial palace alive. Get a new boyfriend too, one approved by your father"

"Never!" She stood up incensed. "I refuse to leave this place without them! Why is everybody always making choices for me?"

The musketeer lidded his eyes menacingly. "Are refusing my generous offer?"

"I do!" The bat puffed her chest out. "Thanks but no, thanks! Just put me again in the cage with Tammy and Gadget! Tell my father I'm fine and well alongside my beloved Dale"

"Foxglove, please!" Monterey stepped forward. "You don't even know where your lad is! For all we know, he could be dead, killed by the humans at the harbor or by…" The mouse bit his lips and lowered his gaze, as the words of the pirate rats echoed in his mind again.

"You are wrong, mister knight!" The female bat glanced at him over the shoulder. "My bard is brave and strong and smart. He was the one who defeated Lawhinie, remember? Chip couldn't hold a candle to him. On top of that, he's the luckiest rodent in Earth. Dale will save me from all of you, as sure as rain!"

"Oh, enough of this nonsense" Patrick slammed his fist on the table. "Knights, take this prisoner back to the cage! I'll let the inquisitors decide her fate"

"Aye, sir!"

"And get ready to march to the inquisitorial palace. We've lost enough time here"

On their way back, Foxglove was beaming a smile from ear to ear. When asked why, she dreamily declared: "Isn't obvious? the stage for my cutie to perform on is all set. The villain, the thugs, the damsel in danger… everything is ready for him to enter scene like the hero he is. A hero coming back to me"

The bells of Notre Dame that called for mass at that breezy afternoon were heard by all living beings in Paris, except for Dale Oakmont, who had spent the las pair of minutes frozen in time and space victim of the truth bomb his friend had dropped on him.

"My lute… my mom's lute, is six hundred years old?"

"Yes, that's what the ravens just said" Chip spoke from above the bard's head. "A relic blessed by the god of poetry himself. Braggi was his name? Nevermind, are you going to climb the tree or not?"

"How come you aren't as shocked as I am by this revelation?"

"Oh, I'm shocked! Aghast! Dismayed!" Chip gestured over-dramatically while clinging from the tree's bark, then returned to his old serious self. "YouHappy now?"

"You are a bad actor"

"But then again, a magical viking lute explains a lot about you and your antics"

"Har-har, how funny"

The bard shook his head twice and then followed his friend up a young elm tree whose canopy bloomed well above the walls of their destination: The inquisitorial palace of Paris.

A place of violence, of zealotry. A token of the worse side of humanity and a reminder of the lengths the smallfolk were willing to go in order to mimic the human world. Human inquisition, rodent inquisition. Both of them religious fanatics, both of them under the same roof.

This palace was laid out in a cuboid shape two stories high, with a flat roof surrounded by a balustrade. Every floor had five tall windows. The south façade – the main entrance – also displayed a terrace and four majestic Corinthian columns. Sets of small windows at the foundations of the building indicated the existence of a large basement. Flags of the inquisition and the catholic church hung down from the roof and fluttered quietly with the breeze.

However, the most prominent feature was on the east side of the palace. The whole façade was tainted black as consequence of a fire which, judging by the color, decay and state of the grass around it, should have occurred more than one month ago. Chip and Dale's fears became reality. "So this is it. This is the place" The red-nosed chipmunk's voice broke as he stood on the very edge of his branch. "Gerald and Elizabeth died here, just like the evil witch said"

"They got killed here" Chip corrected holding back the tears and the anger. "By a beast from hell, a trader of souls in the shape of a cat!"

"The master of Gadget and Lawhinie…"

Chip scowled back at his friend.

"Well, it's the truth!"

The ranger crossed his arms, sighed and returned to his old cold self. "That's why I am here. That's why I made a deal with the god Odin. I'll kill that cat for him, and he will help me save Gadget and Lawhinie"

"Easy as pie?"

"Easy as pie" He reached for the pommels of his swords, then gave Dale a cocky grin. "Everything I need to fulfill the heroic deed is right here"

As soon as Chip said these words otherworldy voices resounded again in his mind, unwanted and unwelcomed. "Very well said, hero!" Huggin praised him. "Gadget Hackwrench is as good as yours, as long as you send the fiend back to the pits of hell!".

"Kill the cat, save the girl! Easy as pie!" Munnin added excited.

"Easy as pie! Caw caw caw!"

Dale watched bewildered as his friend shook his head and ran a paw down his face. "Are you all right? Are these magical ravens bothering you again?"

"Relax, everything is under control" The black-nosed chipmunk put his hood on. "Let's take a closer look. There is something off about this place"

The ranger was right. The closer they got to the palace, the gloomier the surrounding environment became. Grass in the forsaken gardens, for example, seemed to wither away bit by bit with every step they took towards the blackened facade. The air smelled faintly of something Chip couldn't quite right identify, something out of place, something… dangerous. An uncertainty what made his fur stand on edge the moment he and Dale arrived at a small clearing at the base of the palace's outer stairs and were welcomed by the sight of… a petrified mouse.

A literal petrified mouse, a priest frozen forever in a crawling stance, or perhaps he fell to the ground a second before being turned to stone? In any case, one could say his last breath was spent reaching out for help, the arm stretched out upwards and his face contorted in pain.

The chipmunks knew only one being with the power and the cruelty to do that to an innocent life. Dale whispered her name with fearful anticipation. "Lawhinie?"

Chip's increased swallowing was enough answer.

"Oh God, oh God, oh God!" The bard freaked out. "Is Lawhinie in Paris? You think she is nearby? Perhaps… is she inside?"

"Inside?" The black-nosed chipmunk looked at where his companion pointed out, to a pair of doors concealed by foliage on a corner where the wall meet the staircase. "Oh, you found the entrance!"

"They are opened, nobody is guarding them. Not a good sign, correct?"

Chip walked ahead and gave the wooden doors a closer inspection. "Look at these claw marks" He run his finger on them up down slowly.

"Lawhinie did that?" Dale ventured.

"Not… likely. There are pawprints of different sizes here. Also, only the inner side of the door is damaged"

The bard's knees shivered at these words. "What? What does that mean?"

"Lawhinie turned into a werewolf" Chip said out flatly.

"Huh?"

"Just joking!" Chip grinned amused. "I have no clue yet, so I guess I'll have to look for them inside this place"

"You going in there?" Dale grabbed his friend by the cloak "What if the witch is there? What about me? I refuse to enter in and you can't leave me here alone!"

"Sure I can! I need you to wait here and call me if anything happens. Worry not, If Lawhinie is really around, she should be sleeping at this hour of the day, just like Gadget uses to"

"Umh, I guess you are right"

The ranger gave his friend a last smug nod and stepped into the darkened folley. "Shout my name if something happens. I'll come back to you on the double"

"Make it on the triple" The red-nosed murmured as his friend seemed to melt with the shadows of the corridor. "Ugh, and so he exits stage left"

The place was as silent as a tomb, and just as dark. The first ten or so minutes Chip slipped from one shadow to another carefully and stealthily, but soon it became apparent there was nobody around. Not guards, not priests, not torturers or executioners. And so he decided to light a torch. The ranger would spend the next full two hours exploring every basement of the place - even the maligned torture chambers - always in the search of clues and later on, survivors. A search that resulted in nothing.

What he found instead was an opulent palace reduced to ruins by a storm of violence and savagery, one which didn't leave any dead or living rodent in its wake, only dried blood, destruction and claw markings all over the floors and walls. Even the invaluable paintings, religious ornaments and jewelry had been destroyed in a most violent way. The palace reeked of death, but there were no remains on top of the pools of blood he found in the sleeping quarters. It was as if the corpses had simply banished leaving behind the stench.

Chip entered yet another room, one with lines of bookshelves and a desk right at the opposite wall. This room in particular was littered with papers and shattered books. Also, a scorched spot in the middle. Quite confused, the chipmunk raised his voice for the first time in a while. "Huggin, Munnin? What just happened here? The palace is totally wrecked and stained with blood, but there are no corpses, not even the faint smell of death or decay. Where are the priests and soldiers who lived here? What does this black spot means?"

"What makes you think we have the answer, chipmunk?" One of his raven-swords asked back.

"Aren't you the spies of Odin in Earth? I'd assumed you saw what happened here. It was quite recent, just some days ago, judging by the fresh blood and thin layers of dust"

"We are Odin's spies, not Chip Maplewood's spies" The same raven countered. "We are not obliged to answer your questions. Much less one as dumb as the one you just spoke"

"Dumb question? Wait, so you will only help me murder people, that's what you are trying to say?"

"We will help you get to your fated destination, and right now you are standing exactly where you were supposed to stand"

"Stand, you say?" The ranger looked down at his feet, as he was stepping at that moment over a parchment of yellow paper.

A bounty notice with his own face on it.

The indignant rage the chipmunk felt was multiplied by the cackling laughter of the otherworldly birds. "Really funny!" He tore the paper apart, heat flushing from his body. It was then that he found the bounties of his friends laying around as well, and a pile of papers on the desk. Undoubtedly, he had arrived at the very room that printed bounties to be later distributed all over the country.

"Tammy, Gadget, Dale, myself" The torch shed light over the pictures of the disgraced rodents. Suddenly, a bounty that had been placed apart at the edge of the desk came into sight. "Enzo Moretti, Wizard? Who is he?"

The voice of the raven turned serious. "Don't worry about him"

"One hundred gold nuggets. Even Dale's bounty is bigger. Is this guy some kind of street magician?"

Silence followed his question.

"Right, then…" The vexed ranger put the parchment away and walked out from that room. Once he got to the corridor again, an idea crossed his mind: to put the whole archive in fire if only to get rid of these pestering bounties. However, that wouldn't solve anything, as he soon concluded. Dozens of these papers were already out in the city and beyond. Perhaps they had reached Le Havre by now.

Chip grimaced at the thought of his parents discovering his picture posted on walls on their way to church, but there was nothing he could do about it at the moment.

The next room was occupied by a printing press and crates half-filled with paper, ink and different tools. "Well, this room isn't as messed up as the others. So, this is where they print the bounty notices? They really are quick"

"Perhaps we shouldn't tell him" Huggin's voice sounded in the back of the chipmunk's mind. "Time is running out"

"It's another piece of the puzzle" Munnin argued. "Insignificant, but he needs it to put his mind at ease"

That was one talk which didn't amuse Chip at all. "What are you squeaking about?"

"You wonder how did the Paris inquisition made your pictures so accurate and detailed, no? How did they were able to send the bounties far and away in such short time after the battle against Julien Montblanc"

"Is not polite to read other's mind"

"Well, open that door at the end of the corridor, the answer you seek is inside"

Indeed, at the end of the corridor stood a door. The only undamaged door in the whole building, apparently. It was made of heavy wood and, small metal cleats embedded in a vertical line adorned it. The ranger put his paw on the knob, hesitated for a pair for seconds, filled his lungs, and turned it counterclockwise. The door opened with a loud creaking sound, followed by a chill wind that made the torch flicker and project dancing shadows around its wielder.

Curiosity alone made Chip step into the room, which was a pair of degrees colder than the neighboring quarters. It was not a particularly large area, a room without windows, more akin to a cell. It contained only a small collection of cloth-covered furniture, nothing more and nothing less.

Confusion ran through the ranger's face a moment before realizing there was a single object uncovered at the very center of the room. A full body mirror in a silvery engraved frame. The fact that its surface had no layer of dust on top made the inquisitive chipmunk raise his brow with uncertainty. "How… interesting" He whispered as the scratched the fur of his grizzled face. He could barely recognize himself. Certainly, it has been a while since he last stood in front of a mirror like that to groom himself.

The ranger cocked his head right and suddenly frowned. Something was off. The reflection was… slower than normal. As if it struggled to follow the motion of the reflected person. To say it was unsettling was an understatement.

The image blurred away. Chip had just sucked his breath in at this realization when another, different person took the place of the chipmunk's reflection. A pretty female mouse of pale white skin and tousled blonde hair, dressed in a tattered black silk robe fastened with a purple waist sash. It was none other than Gadget Hackwrench, the girl that stole his heart on that graveyard in what felt already like many years ago. The mirror showed her in some sort of cage, sleeping like the dead and surrounded by marching musketeers in Rouen's uniforms. "Gadget…"

The ranger reached out and touched the surface of the mirror. As he did so, a hollow, disembodied voice was heard across the room. "Gadget Hackwrench! Witch, witch, witch!"

"What the hell?" Chip jumped back with his fur on edge. As he did, the image faded away and only the chipmunk's reflection remained.

"Calm down, this magic mirror works the same as a crystal ball" Huggin explained hastily. "It lets you know about people and events occurring many leagues away"

"So that's how the inquisitors found out about us, even down to Dale's big red nose?"

"Exactly! A very useful gift from Mephisto to these corrupt priests. However, we have no idea why did he gave them a tool to hunt down the people he made deals with"

"Devils are by nature double-crossers" The ranger declared.

"Whatever the reason, you'd do well in destroy this enchanted mirror right here and right now" Munnin advised.

"Consider it done!" The ranger unsheathed the feathered swords and raised them ready to destroy the mirror, which was reflecting the chipmunk's features at that moment. However, just as he was about to land a double blow on the surface, another image came into sight. One that froze Chip in his place.

It was a cat - a cat as black as the deepest of darkness - sitting down on his hind legs and looking at the horizon with his back towards the ranger's point of view. His tail whipped back and forth in a peculiar way, as if expecting something to happen sooner than later. The room, meanwhile, filled with echoes of a single lament. "Master!"

"Who's…" A frightened Chip started to say, when the black cat's ears perked up. The feline glanced back over his shoulder and then, after an initial frown of disbelief, his feline eyes ignited in a white blaze and his mouth opened baring fangs too large and sharp for any common cat. The growl he uttered as he turned around and got ready to pounce sent the ranger into a state of fear that made him drop his swords and fall back to his knees. "Oh God!"

The mirror then shattered in a thousand shards.

"Just… just… What was that?" The shivering chipmunk spoke incoherently. It took him many seconds just to gather the will to stand up again and when he did, he found his legs could barely support him and was sweating cold. He crumpled to the ground again amid rasping breaths. In his whole life, Chip had never experienced a wave of terror as strong as the one he was running through him in that lonely, barely lit room.

"Damn, this was unexpected" The raven of thought declared. "Hey hero, pull yourself together! The horror you feel will dissipate soon"

"I said, what was that!?" Chip demanded to know.

"That, my friend, was Mephisto, the dealer of souls. The devil you swore to slay, in the shape of a mortal cat"

Chip shook his head angrily. "That wasn't a mortal cat! Didn't you see his flaming eyes?"

"Yeah, yeah" The raven of memory conceded. "Perhaps the lock spell cast upon him is wearing out?"

"That's highly likely, brother. Chipmunk, you better hurry up and kill him before he completes reverting back to his original, supernatural form"

The aghast ranger tried to stand up again, trembling as he was from head to toes. "To kill him… is that even possible?"

"Relax, we can still shred him to pieces, if you have the courage to take us close enough to him, of course"

Sensing hints of doubt in their host, the ravens played another card. A memory of the blonde witch danced in the chipmunk's mind: the moment she kissed him in the brink of death. Chip could almost feel the soft dulcet lips pressing against his again. Her warmth, her fragrance…

"Yes, that fair girl of gentle heart and dreamy disposition" Huggin whispered in a highly suggestive tone. "You love her, don't you? More than love, you desire her… You want her for yourself"

Chip bit his lips. If anything, the image of Gadget and her toothy smile helped soothe his mind and heart.

"She's not yours, though" The raven stung him. "She already has a master, one who will drag her to hell the moment she perishes in this world. Once that happens, you'll never see her again, not in this life or the next".

That hurt the black-nosed chipmunk as bad as a stab wound.

"The witch already told you the big secret of this world" Munnin added to the injury. "One doesn't stay dead for long. Our souls reborn time after time, as long as we don't give them up in a witchcraft trade like your pretty mouse did"

The ranger slammed his fist on the wall, out of frustration. "I know that! Do you think I don't know that?" Holding tears, he then went and picked up the swords from the ground. "If you say that thing can be slain, then I'll slay it, goddamit all!"

"That's the spirit, chipmunk!" It felt as if both ravens stirred and fluttered. "Onward to your fated encounter!"

"Fated, huh?" The still upset Chip took a last look at his reflection on the many glass shards that now covered the floor of the room. Indeed, he could barely recognize himself anymore.

The black-nosed chipmunk was halfway to the main entrance doors when he first heard the alarmed voice of his bard friend. "...iip! Chiiip!"

"Hold on, I'm on my way!"

"Hurry! They are coming!"

Dale, who was shouting at the dark corridor from the safety of the threshold, got the scare of his life the moment Chip suddenly emerged from the shadows. "Gah! Oh, it's you!" Then he pushed his friend's shoulder. "Don't startle me like that!"

The already stressed Chip gladly returned the gesture. "Don't push me like that!"

"You started it!"

"You did!"

"Ok stop!" The ranger waved his paws energetically. "What's the alarm? Who's coming?"

"Musketeers, Chip! A whole battalion of them! I was up there at the top of the stairs watching around when I noticed banners advancing in the gardens over there!"

"Musketeers? Let's see…" Fast as lightning, the black-nosed chipmunk climbed the steps of the human-sized stairs and peered into the distance. A wide grin of excitement adorned his face the moment he spotted the silver mouse and halberd in the banners of the approaching army, followed by racing heartbeats as a wagon with a cage came into view at the center of the marching column.

Dale, bouncing on his toes, shouted up at his companion. "Is it them, the musketeers from Rouen? Do you see Foxglove there?"

"Oh, it's them, all right!" Chip informed as he made his way back to the excited bard. "Come on, we got to hide!"

A few minutes later, a battalion of fifty musketeers arrived at the doors of the palace and somehow, the earth below them growled with hunger.


	12. Chapter 12 - The trap (Part 1)

**Chapter 12 – The trap (Part 1)**

Patrick LeFevre gave the order to stop as soon as they reached the clearing in front of the burned east façade of the palace. The column stopped at his command. Following rodent martial traditions, it was divided into three squadrons: vanguard, commanded by the blue lizard himself; center, where the cage wagon was escorted under Monterey Jack's orders; rear, where the rest of the musketeers marched at the rhythm imposed by a rat lieutenant named Gideon.

The fifty-three soldiers came to a halt which gave them time to better appreciate the surroundings. Of course, the first thing everybody posed their eyes on was the burned building that loomed over them like an injured, yet menacing beast. Many were the tales of woe and ignominy which occurred in its bowels, with humans and smallfolk alike serving as victims of that violent zealotry disguised as heavenly justice.

And, as if these tales were not enough to unsettle the soldiers, a strange lack of noise enveloped the whole area. There were no birds, insects or rodents nearby, nobody to welcome them. Only silence. Silence and a strange feeling of sorrow that seemed to emanate from the rocks themselves.

After some uncomfortable moments in which the lizard glanced all around him with increasing discontent, something got his attention right at the doors of the rodent building. Something that made him sweat and grit his teeth quite disturbed.

From the distance it was just a common rock, big and out of place but a rock nonetheless. However, as soon as one got closer, features decidedly inherent only to living beings could be appreciated. Eyes, a nose, ears and paws. A robe, belt and sandals. This rock was nothing but a priest turned to stone with a horrified expression in his face. An arm up in the air, reaching for help that never came.

The blue lizard immediately summoned the three scouts in the battalion – insects all of them-. "Zipper, Grimkell, Asmund!"

Grimkell and Asmund were a pair of wasps with many years in service of Rouen's smallfolk army. They hovered to their commander's side as fast as they could, and their heart also skipped a beat at the sight of the petrified mouse. It was even worse for Zipper, as the memory of Julien Montblanc and that fateful night in the fields of Saint Pierre assaulted him, and couldn't help but drop to the ground overcome with disbelief.

These scouts were followed by many of their comrades, Monterey Jack among them. "Lil' pally!" The big mouse quickly picked the fly up and placed on his broad shoulder. "Easy, easy… rest here"

Zipper noticed, as he drew breaths to regain his calm, that the musketeers who had gathered around were in the same state of agitation as him. Whispering one another, reaching for religious tokens and sending quick prayers. Some others turning around and leaving the spot with trembling knees. Even his mighty friend was pursing his lips anxiously.

"Pull yourself together, men!" Patrick ordered with his trademark hissing accent. "Everybody, back to their posts! Scouts, follow me this way"

He also pulled Monterey by the shirt and whispered to him. "Sir Jack, keep the girls in the cage safe. Nobody touches them until I command so"

"Aye, sir!" The bulky knight saluted and hurried back to the wagon cage.

"Scouts, this is a grim turn of events" Patrick concluded peering at the distance. "And I'm  
not just talking about this woeful scribe turned to stone. A whole garrison of mice musketeers is supposed to be posted here, but they are nowhere in sight. I don't like it. I don't like it one bit"

The insects nodded in understanding.

"Spread out" He waved. "Zipper, check out the interior of the palace. Grimkell, look out for the garrison's fort beyond these bushes. Asmund, check out our surroundings. Look for any sight of the inquisitors or the musketeers stationed here. Come back to report to me in one hour"

"Yes, sir!"

With buzzing speed, Zipper and his comrades got to work. The fly cautiously entered the darkened palace, praying he didn't bump face to face with the devilish sister of Gadget while navigating that pitch-black obscurity. He was lucky on that regard, as he found no one in there, only a considerable amount of blood splattered all over the place, as well as claw marks in the doors and walls, ravaged furniture, broken portraits and other destroyed valuables. All of it told the tale of a massacre that should have happened barely one or two days ago. And just like the ranger who walked these corridors hours before, the scout fly couldn't find any trace of dead or living rodents around. As if the corpses had simply banished. However, the off-putting smell of death and violence still permeated that underground palace like a silent witness that urged the fly to leave. It was frightening, to say the least.

One hour or so had passed and Zipper had just peered into a room with cloth-covered furniture and a shattered mirror when he heard trumpets resounding at the distance. The call to come back! The fly quickly made his way to the outside, his mind still trying to make sense of the evidence – and lack of evidence – of whatever had occurred in that place.

Once the three insects gathered around him safe and sound, the lizard took his hat off and run a paw over the scaly head. "All right scouts, what did you find?"

"Signs of a battle in the clearing and beyond, sir!" Grimkell, a more experienced tracker than Zipper or even Chip, informed assuredly. "Something big happened in this field very recently. However, I couldn't find anyone, living or dead. Only weapons scattered here and there" Then he turned in the direction of the gardens. "There is a sensation here… an uncomfortable feeling on the tip of my antennae. I can't just pinpoint it…"

The lizard's sight fell on Zipper, and he promptly stood straight and declared. "The  
inquisitorial palace was ravaged, sir! There is evidence of a slaughter which occurred recently, but no corpses or survivors left. They… banished"

Patrick walked towards the petrified priest and crossed his arms over his chest. "It's the witch, isn't she? The witch did this before we captured her. There is no other explanation"

"No, Gadget is innocent!" Zipper raised his voice. His fellow scouts looked at him with disapproving stares, but the fly, nevertheless, continued. "Monterey already told you about her twin sister, Lawhinie Hackwrench, and what she did to Julien Montblanc! She would totally do something as cruel and savage as this"

"Oh please! Again with that tale of the evil twin sister?" The lizard turned and met the fly eye to eye. "And we just happened to imprison the good-natured, kind and harmless sister, didn't we?"

"Sir, but we did! Gadget…"

"Gadget Hackwrench is a witch!" Patrick roared. "A most devious one! Don't you remember that night at the graveyard when she filled our minds with false images of ghosts and hauntings? Don't you remember how she froze me and let me there in the cold until the sunrise broke the spell?"

"I… yes, I remember, sir" the fly slumped his shoulders.

"I do remember you poked at me, waved goodbye and left me there defenseless…"

Zipper got pale and even ¬fluttered a step back. "I… had to report back to Julien…"

"Relax, I hold no grudge against you or Sir Jack anymore. But make no mistake, there are no good witches in this world. And the prettier ones, like the one in that cage, are the worst of all. A little smile here, some sweet words there and soon they have got an entire village against us, making their capture a bloodbath" At that point the lizard made an evil grin.

"Chip Maplewood fell into the trap of these candid blue eyes, that much was clear to all who looked at him that night"

An uproar cut short the captain's admonishing tale. Back at the wagon, a small group of musketeers were arguing back and forth with Monterey Jack demanding the prisoners to be taken out and lynched. The mutiny escalated when a mouse of black fur and gray eyes named Zahid took the lead and incited others to force the doors open. Tammy and Foxglove defended themselves and their sleeping friend the best they could, scared as they were from the frenzied soldiers.

"Back off, mate!" The mustachioed knight pushed Zahid away from the cage's door, then defiantly placed himself between them and the prisoners, one hand ready to unleash his greatsword on the unruly musketeers. "Leave these girls alone, you cowards!"

"You moron!" The black mouse, owner of a penetrating and strident bass voice, threatened and insulted the Scottish knight. "Didn't you see the petrified mouse back there? That witch did it! Just like she turned captain Montblanc to stone! I was there… yes, there in the fire that devoured my friends!"

On that moment, the captain arrived at the scene followed by the trio of scouts. "What the hell is going on here?"

As one concerned teammate helped the distressed mouse to stand straight, the others rushed to meet their commander. Gideon was the first to speak up. "Sir! We've heard the inquisitors are nowhere to be found, that the entire guard is also missing. Is that true?"

"Aye, that much is true, lieutenant"

The officer gulped down. "T-then, I advise to get rid of these witches ourselves. Let's prepare a bonfire, let's burn them before it's too late!"

Many musketeers nodded in approval, but Patrick would have none of that. He grabbed Gideon by the collar and met his trembling eyes. "Control yourself, soldier! All of you, will follow my commands! Our orders are to deliver these witches to the inquisitors and we will do just that, understood?"

"But sir… the sun is setting down, the blonde witch will wake up soon! Then… then…"

"Then you will still do nothing but to follow orders!"

"Yes, yes sir" The trembling officer nodded and stepped back.

It was clear to Patrick that his troops were growing restless. This was not the outcome any of them were waiting for. It didn't help that a good portion of the column were survivors from the expedition to Saint Pierre, soldiers who suffered greatly at the fire and illusions cast by that blonde witch without an ounce of mercy. After some moments of careful thought which made everybody held their breath in anticipation the captain finally issued a fateful order. "Let's go back to the stables!"

The troops cheered and hurried back into a marching formation. Each of them knew that the journey back would take at least four hours treading through dark streets filled with undesirable humans and smallfolk. That was still a better option than to spend the night in that forsaken garden next to a scene of witchcraft and slaughter. With that in mind, the column of rodent musketeers began to make their way back to the exterior walls.

Not far away, the pair of chipmunks followed the soldier's movements with interest from their hiding spot under a thick shrubbery. "Chip, they are turning around! They aren't staying! What do we do now!"

"Dale, calm down!"

"Calm down you say? When are we going to rescue Foxy and the others, then?"

"We stand no chance against a whole battalion of soldiers" The ranger stepped out and looked at the red sky. "We must be patient"

The shadows of twilight finally crept through the bars of the slowly moving wagon and made Gadget Hackwrench stir and draw a long, lazy breath in. Then a mighty yawn overcame her, which in turn caused her to shyly bring her paw to the mouth. Only then she acknowledged her wrists were tied together again, this time fastened with leather strips that used to belong to a belt. "Ah yes, I was captured again" She whispered to herself with a sad smile of resignation.

"Gadget darling, are you all right?" Foxglove, who was looking beyond the bars with the big ears perked up, turned to hold the mouse's paws on hers.

While Tammy, curled on the opposite corner of the cage, wasn't in the mood to greet her companion as enthusiastically. "Hey witch, so you finally woke up?"

"Indeed I did" The blonde mouse rubbed her eyes as best as she could. "Where are we now? Oh!" The witch's jaw fell open, for beyond the cage the first thing she saw was the scorched east wing of the inquisitorial palace of Paris. "This place!"

"This is the place where your master killed my parents" Tammy declared in a slow monotonous voice, devoid of hate or sorrow.

"Yes, it was here" The guilt-struck Gadget lowered her gaze. "I'm so very sorry, Tammy"

The girl just shrugged in response. "I've been awake all day long. I think I've passed through the five stages of grief by now. There are no more tears left in me"

"Aww, Tammy!" The bat quickly went and gave her friend a heartfelt, compassionate hug. "Please, don't bear this sorrow alone. Gerald and Elizabeth were my friends as well, remember?"

After a moment of hesitation, the squirrel finally warmed up and wrapped her arms around Foxglove. "At least we are together" She whispered with a pained tone.

"But if we arrived at the palace, then why are we leaving? And in such a hurry?" Gadget inquired quite confused. "What happened today?"

Tammy shook her head. "I'm not sure. At first looked like there were no inquisitors here to receive us. Then a bunch of panicked soldiers came and tried to take us out by force. They even spoke of execute us right here and now. If it weren't for Monterey Jack who defended us…"

"Their hearts are racing in fear now, I can hear them thumping mad" Foxglove added with concern.

The squirrel cleric looked again back at the palace and couldn't help but to squeeze her long tail out of apprehensiveness. "We should be afraid too"

At the vanguard of the marching column were a pair of field mice of short stature but big dreams. Arlo and Giles, both natives of the rodent village of Preaux and both eager to rose through the ranks of the musketeer army of Rouen. They young mice were a promising addition to Patrick's army unit. The adventuring pair had distinguished themselves during the siege of Stone Coffer, and now Arlo had the distinction of lead the column as bannerman with Giles as his backup and guardian. It was Giles, in fact, who first warned Arlo that there was someone on the distance, right where the wall met the exit fence.

"Do you see him, Arlo?" The musketeer pointed at the darkened figure. "That mouse is running towards us"

"Aye, is he a musketeer? I think he is wearing a musketeer uniform".

"You are right! The colors of the inquisitorial guard! I must tell captain LeFevre!" The excited Giles broke formation. Everybody, stop! There is a musketeer coming to us!"

The vanguard halted and watched in growing suspense at the mouse who tried desperately to reach them. So desperate he tripped over a exposed tile and rolled around a few strides forward growling in pain.

"Go help him!" Patrick ordered and some volunteers stepped forward, only to stop short and witness the mouse raise again and resume his crazed run towards them, arms stretched out and jaw hanging down.

Those who also stretched out their arms to receive him quickly recoiled in horror and disbelief. Half the mouse's face was gone. The left side of his face was nothing but muscle and an empty socket where the eye should be. The rest of the head was covered in dirt and blood. A whole section of his stomach was missing below the stained uniform and the intestines were hanging down and swinging side to side with every step. And yet that lost musketeer somehow was able to growl and run like a rabid animal. It jumped at Arlo with open mouth and bared fangs as soon as his bloody right eye met the bannerman's shivering own, while the troopers just stood there too frightened to even move aside.

On the very last moment Giles pushed Arlo aside and took the blow himself. By the time his teammates reacted the creature was already feasting madly on the brave musketeer's neck, even though a knife had broken through its rotting heart and burst out at the creaking back. Giles even threw a few weak blows at the head and ribs before falling victim to the monster's hunger.

"Giles!" A raging Arlo pulled the creature off the lifeless body of his friend, then stabbed it viciously with the help of his comrades as everybody struggled to hold it pinned to the ground. However, only until the head was cut off completely the chilling screams ceased and the claws stopped to move.

Words of the gruesome incident spread like fire among the center and rear ranks of the military column. Amid the confusion Zipper buzzed hectically from one extreme to the other and finally towards the cage-wagon, where his comrade Monterey Jack was already engaged in another incensed argument with Zahid and his supporters.

"Did you hear?" The grey-eyed mouse was fuming by that moment. "A monster just appeared in the darkness and killed Giles! That witch just awoke mere minutes ago and now one of us is dead! Now, let us kill her before it happens again!"

"No, you are wrong!" The blonde witch defended herself from inside the cage. "I didn't summon anything! I'm not that kind of witch!"

"You liar! You spawn of satan!" The frantic Zahid drew his blade as his grey eyes sparked with hate. "By the grace of God, I sentence you three witches to death!"

While the girls retreated to the opposite extreme of the cage, Monterey Jack and Zipper drew their blades to defend them. The length and weight of the mercenary's greatsword dwarfed the musketeer's rapier but even then, Zahid didn't concede a single step back. "Stand aside, Sir Jack! I warn you!"

"Nay, mate. Put your weapon down!"

"You double-faced foreigners" His voice trembled with resentment. "Changing sides as you see fit! Just like that night when you betrayed all of us and walked away with the witch, only to show yourselves later with that cursed chipmunk as a peace offering! They captain might have forgiven you, but we, the survivors of the massacre, sure didn't! Isn't that right, comrades?"

"Aye!" Many other musketeers answered and soon encircled the wagon and the pair of scottish knights guarding it, while the few undecided ones took a step back. Swords were unsheathed, spears pointed forward and crossbows armed and tensed up. "The charade is over, Sir Jack" The black mouse declared emboldened. "You'll regret betraying the Rouen's army!"

Monterey gripped his sword firmly and threw the black mouse a darting glance. "Haud yer wheesht, mate! I'm the one obeying the cap'n's orders to the letter. Nobody touches these lasses, much less a lily-livered excuse of a soldier like you"

"Lies! You are deceiving us again, I know it!"

"Brin' it on, then!"

"To me, brothers! Down with the witch and the foreigners!"

On the last moment screams of alarm outshouted the renegades' battle cry and made them stop their charge and turn their heads around. Musketeers from the vanguard were retreating towards them in panic and disorder. The scout Asmund was first among them, buzzing his way to Zipper yelling over and over three single words. "Giles killed Arlo! Giles killed Arlo!"

"Asmund!" The fly promptly caught his comrade and helped him land on the cage's roof. "Asmund calm down! What are you talking about? Giles is dead!"

"Yes, dead!" The wasp declared on the verge of tears. "And yet he rose again, like a monster! He tore off Arlo's throat and devoured him in front of us! Then the captain… the captain cut his head off!"

Those who listened at that revelation could only answer with a quiet prayer. "God have mercy…"

It was then that hell broke loose. No sooner had the soldiers gathered their wits after witnessing the murder of the bannerman than the ground below them trembled so fierce and with such a roaring noise that made the whole battalion fall to their knees amid screams of terror and cries for help. The wagon-cage with the three girls inside swayed back and forth violently and finally got loose from its bonds. It ran downhill a short distance and at least over two unsuspecting musketeers until the tremors made it hit a boulder and crashed down on its left side. Only the fluffy and cushioned tail of Tammy prevented the girls to sustain other injuries than a few bruises and scratches. The three of them opened their eyes and found themselves holding each other tightly. "Oh, wow" Tammy stuttered quite blushed the moment she noticed Gadget resting on top of her. "I… you can let me go now, witch"

"Huh? I believe you are the one hugging me, Tammy. My paws are still bound, see?"

"Just go away already!" The embarrassed squirrel pushed the mouse away and sprang up to her feet. Only then she realized there was no cage anymore, just piles of debris around her.  
"Hey, look at this, we are free!"

Foxglove, still collecting her spinning thoughts, helped Gadget to stand up as well. "Holy cow, what just happened? Wait… What's this smell?"

By then the earthquake had subdued leaving behind a heavy cloud of dust that obscured the whole garden in a gray mist. A mist blocking a clear line of sight from anything more than five or so strides away. Along with the fog came a peculiar stench that reminded the bat of rotting carcasses. The stench of death. "Did someone die?"

A series of screams coming from every direction in that foul-smelling mist put the girl's fur on edge. Not only were soldiers yelling orders and warnings one to another – Foxglove could even distinguish the gruff voice of Monterey calling out for Zipper - but also blood-chilling shrieks that even a wild and nocturnal creature like her couldn't exactly identify. "Girls, we really must get out of here!"

"Where to?" Tammy looked around and everything she could see were shadows of people appearing and disappearing in the fog. "We are surrounded!" She declared growing anxious at the cacophony of horrid noises around her.

Another voice was heard on the distance, one that filled Foxglove's heart with instant joy. "Foxy! Foxy! Where are you!?"

"Oh my god! Dale?" Tears welled up on the bat's eyes. She jumped up down and agitated the wings on the direction she believed her beloved boyfriend was coming. "Dale! Dale, over here, darling!"

But the rodent that stepped out from the mist in front of Foxglove wasn't Dale Oakmont at all. It was none other than Zahid, with his gray eyes bulging out and his face covered in fresh blood. Suffering from body tremors and rasping breaths, he could barely put one feet ahead of the other but this changed the moment he fixed his sight on the trio of girls. Then his nostrils flared with boiling rage and a guttural sound came out from his gritting teeth.

"I found you… I found you, witch!" He raised his rapier with shaking paws but a complete murderous intention. Tension crept into his penetrating voice. "Now I'll kill you and this madness will stop!"

The squirrel and the bat quickly moved to protect Gadget from the approaching musketeer. "Stay away from us, I warn you!" The cleric boldly said even though her legs were shaking in fear.

"Tammy, Foxy, be careful!"

The black mouse's veins and muscles strained against his skin as he lunged at the girls. "Die, monsters!"

Fate, however, wouldn't let Zahid get close enough to hurt them. From the mist behind a pair of claws held him by the cape and pulled him back violently. "Hnng!" He uttered as he hit the ground.

For some seconds everything the scared girls could see was the silhouette of the mouse defending himself against a wild beast that kept gnawing the flesh off his arm. "No, no! Let me go!"

For their absolute shock and horror, the beast they were gazing at was actually a cadaver - the cadaver of an inquisitor that somehow was alive and feasting on the musketeer's body ferociously-. This putrid abomination was dressed in ragged dirty clerical robes with bits of rib cage and internal organs peeking through. Patches of bare skin showed signs of gangrene and both his arms had turned black due to the decomposing flesh. Still, he kept on devouring the black mouse of grey eyes with an insatiable hunger.

Tammy and Foxglove shut their eyes closed and looked away the moment this animated corpse cracked open the chest of Zahid and ripped out the still beating heart in order to eat it. Only Gadget kept on staring at the scene with a mix of revulsion and fascination. For she had never seen a zombie before, a being that nature and reason stated couldn't – shouldn't – exist. Her admiration was short lived, however, as the undead priest turned towards her and her alone with its blood-spilling mouth contrived into a sort of mocking smile.

"U-untie me…" The witch pleaded in a quivering whisper first, which grew in volume and urgency as the zombie stood straight and stretched its black putrid arms towards her. "Untie me, please!"

Straight out of the mist, a figure rushed past the fear-stunned girls and struck at the priest's head with an iron bar previously picked up from the wagon's wreckage. "All yours, Chip!" This savior - dressed in peackokish red-yellow garments - shouted as he hid again in the mist.

And the ranger himself made an entrance with a jump on the blind side of the staggered zombie, cutting down the head of the undead creature with his fabled swords without an ounce of mercy or doubt. The rotten body then crumpled at the black-nosed chipmunk's feet in a second, final death. Chip kept his eyes and guard fixed on it, as if expecting the headless zombie to somehow continue fighting on.

"Yeah!" Dale joined his victorious yet brooding friend with a slap on the back. "With a bang and a boom! That's what I call teamwork!" Both chipmunks then turned to help of the speechless trio of girls. "Foxglove, Tammy, Gadget!" The bard beamed the biggest smile of his life. "Are you all right?"

"D-D…" Foxglove's eyes watered up as she looked for words, then literally flew at the arms of her red-nosed fiancée and wrapped her wings around him, not wanting to let go never again. "Dale! Dale my love, you are here at last!"

"At last and forever!" The bard eagerly declared, then leaned forward to pay his loved one a long due kiss. "I missed you so much, Foxy!"

Chip, meanwhile, was assaulted and almost tackled down by the euphoric young squirrel. "Chip! Oh god, Chip, it's really you!"

"Tammy! You are safe!" The chipmunk hugged the squirrel back, patted her head tenderly but not much else, as his attention was soon drawn to the mouse that was silently smiling at him. Tammy was just about to tell Chip how much she missed him when the ranger broke the embrace and stepped away, leaving the cleric with the words on the tip of her tongue.

"Gadget…" His voice trembled with a myriad of suppressed emotions and suddenly, he had no idea what to say. "I… it's been…"

"Sorry if I don't hug you like Tammy did" The blonde mouse blushed looking down tenderly. "But my paws are bound, see?"

"Don't worry about it" Chip sighed and took her paws on his. With the other paw he drew one of his dual magical longswords upside down and cautiously, very cautiously cut down the leather strips what tied her paws together. "Done!"

As soon as the sword was safely dropped in the scabbard he expected his beloved witch to jump at him just like Foxglove had jumped to Dale but instead, the mouse let her arms fall down to the sides, with her face turning ashen and her lips trembling astonished. This sudden change of mood worried not only Chip, but also Tammy who was right behind him.

"Gosh, Gadget, don't tell me I hurt you! I'm so sorry!"" The chipmunk hurried to grab the female mouse's paws again, but this time she refused to be touched and even took a step away from him.

"Where… Where did you get these swords!?" She asked quite perturbed.

"I don't think that's important right now"

"It is for me! These swords, these… creatures… they are bloodthirsty!"

Chip was carefully considering his next words when Tammy got between him and Gadget. "That's enough, witch! Can't you hold your questioning tongue for a while? We are not exactly safe yet, remember?"

A gust of wind helped dissipate the last remnants of the mist, thus revealing the battle that raged a few meters away from the party of wanted rodents. Patrick's battalion was scattered and fighting disorderly against an entire horde of zombies – living corpses of the inquisitors and guards that used to live in these gardens -. A quick evaluation let Chip conclude the Rouen's army was outnumbered and on the verge of collapsing. To make things worse, every fallen soldier almost immediately raised again as a new hunger-crazy shade that added to the army of undead.

"Oh cripes!" The bard tugged on his collar. "Who else votes for a quick hushed retreat?"

"We do!" Foxglove and Tammy raised their paws.

"Quick hush invisibility spell coming up!" Gadget pushed up her sleeves and started to create symbols in the air with the fingers. Still, she gave Chip a last reproachful stare. "We'll have our talk later, mister!"

The entire party became indiscernible to one another in the blink of an eye right after the witch pronounced the last word of the spell. "Now keep silence" The voice of Gadget floated in the air. "And do not interact with anybody or you'll break the illusion"

"Right" Her companions whispered in agreement.

On that moment a cadaver with a half-exposed skull and foul-smelling rags popped out from the soil right in front of Foxglove. The bat barely suppressed the natural urge to yell, and stood in her place very still and even holding the breath in. However, that wasn't enough to fool the zombie and its predator instincts. The undead creature pounced right at the invisible bat breaking the spell on her by doing so. Only the timely intervention of Chip prevented a tragedy and his cursed swords disposed of the foe before he could taste the fur of the bat. Unfortunately, by the time the corpse had gone back to the dirt everybody in Chip's party was visible again.

"Hmmn… how interesting!" Gadget rubbed her chin looking at the smelly remains. "It's as if zombies could feel their prey not only by sight but also by smell or sound, even without the proper functional organs"

"What does that mean?" Foxglove, now safe in her bard's arms, asked.

"It means we are in great danger!" Tammy pointed out at a large group of zombies who were already rushing downhill towards them. "They noticed us!"

Just like that, what were already grim circumstances turned into a hopeless situation.

"Calm down everyone, I've got this under control!"" The witch weaved another spell: Entangle. Magical grasping weeds and vines sprouted from the ground to stop and restrain the undead fiercely. It worked, at least for a pair of seconds. To the witch's surprise, the vines broke in shiny little fragments under the unreasonable rage of those monsters. "It-it can't be" Gadget gasped, then in a desperate act she cast upon them holding enchantments like the one she put on that murderous lizard many nights ago. It was useless, as the zombies kept on walking undeterred. Just as she suspected, that same holding spell didn't work on undead opponents.

Upon the blonde witch's distressed expression Chip realized there was only one option left. "Guys, leave now! I'll take care of them!" He yelled as he drew the longswords again and ran to engage the entire group of undead musketeers by himself, rather than letting any of them reach his beloved friends.

Dale tried to hold his friend back but it was too late. "Whoa! Chip, what are you doing!?"

"Chip, no!" Gadget and Tammy shouted in unison.

And it was the image of Gadget and Tammy suffering what made the ranger slash his way through the ranks of zombies with an extra ounce of rage. "Come on, you freaks!" He yelled building up courage. "Come dance with me right here!"

To make things worse, these anxious thoughts stirred the ravens and their dark cloud of ideas. "Faster, hero, faster! Slay these abominations!" Shouted Huggin.

"Keep on! Don't let them get close to your women!" Munnin added not without sarcasm. "You don't want to see them turned to zombies, do you?"

"Rarrggh!" The chipmunk growled in anger and promptly cut down one foe in a vertical slash, then another one in a flashing horizontal swing. The heads of a third and fourth went rolling to the ground almost at the same time and yet, these monsters just kept coming and coming at him. Priests, musketeers, even dead citizens in clothes of one hundred years ago fell on the ranger like a swarm.

Tammy, Gadget, Foxglove and Dale watched horrified as Chip drowned in a sea of rotted claws and fangs, of hateful shrieks and a whirlwind of purple feathers.

The cleric was the first to sprint off on the ranger's aid. "Chipper! Hold on!" She yanked the iron bar from Dale's paws and ran to join her crush on the battlefield.

With an acrobatic jump the nimble Tammy landed right next to Chip at the center of his hurricane of blades. "Hyaaa!"

"Tammy?" Chip's mouth fell open as he witnessed the young girl landing at his back with pinpoint precision. "What the hell, I told you to run away!" He cursed while chopping down an arm that menaced to strangle him.

"I've lost you many times these past days, darling! It won't happen again!" The girl stated as she pushed back a dead priest that still carried a jeweled collar around his neck. Next, she rose the iron bar like a mace and whacked the zombie right on its rawboned skull.

The last time Chip and Tammy had fought together as a team was on a certain night months ago when a group of drunkards made a big ruckus following one of Dale's late-night performances. And just like on that occasion, the chipmunk found they both shared a synergy that was hard to describe with words. Tammy's blows just came after his own fluently and effortlessly with grace and accuracy. To every opponent Chip turned his gaze Tammy was there to follow the attack in the blink of an eye. The blades cut first and the iron bar smashed next and the chipmunk would twirl around with the squirrel coming in a second later to produce a devastating dual finishing move. It was a beautiful and deadly dance which they engaged in not without a strange delight.

A few steps back, Dale was eager to join the fray but his girlfriend had him secured by the waist. "Foxy, let me go! These zombies want to eat our friends!"

"You don't even have a weapon!" The bat argued not without reason.

"That's because Tammy stole mine! Whatever, I'll just smash my lute on these rotting heads! It's a magical lute, anyway"

"Magical?" The startled girl let her fiancée go as she mulled over the meaning of these words and found that a magical lute truly explained a lot about Dale and his antics.

Gadget, meanwhile, brightened up with a new idea. "Foxy! Where is the bag with my cloak?"

"The bag with the cloak? The one we found yesterday? That horrible lizard gave it to Monterey Jack after you fell asleep"

"Oh, is that so?"

As Foxglove took to the air to join the others in the fray, Gadget looked all around the battlefield for the bulky knight. Everywhere the same gut-wrenching scene repeated over and over under the cold light of the moon: Living beings devoured by the dead, like a scene of that book from Dante Alighieri she loved so much – or used to love-. Then, like in the middle of a nightmare, the fallen would woke up again in fast-decaying flesh and in undead state, just like ancient tomes of that matter described. "If my father's books are accurate then… then…"

"There must be a necromancer nearby" The witch concluded alarmed and quickly cast a simple spell to detect evil in the area around. It didn't mark anything besides the ever-increasing number of monsters. She herself was the only black magic user around. That would only mean the master of this horde was powerful enough to wake them up from a far distance, thus making these gardens a trap in which she and her friends, together with the soldiers from Rouen, had fallen into.

"If only Lawhinie was here!" She lamented. "She would know what to do! Well, on second thought…"

Then she heard it: A battle cry with a heavy scottish accent that pierced through the harsh discordance of sounds caused by the screams of agony and terror.


	13. Chapter 13 - The trap (Part 2)

**Chapter 13 – The trap (part 2)**

"Nay, ye blasted ghouls! Back to yer hellhole!"

Monterey Jack's greatsword tore through an entire line of undead in a single swoop. Skulls and limbs and rags and flesh fell like rain and the knight couldn't help but curse inwardly again since at least half of his victims had been dear comrades once.

The fact that Zipper and Patrick were missing since the earthquake jolted the ground below and the cloud of dust hid the sky above added another slab of concern on Monterey's shoulders. Now that the wind had carried the fog away the only thing he could tell for certain is that neither of them were among this last group he had been forced to kill almost blindly and whose writhing forms were now scattered around him in a full circle. Despite the knight's best efforts, these pieces tenaciously tried to reach him. Some half-chopped torsos were still crawling aimlessly, some skulls were still moaning and the mustachioed mouse couldn't wait for the moment to wake up from this hellish nightmare.

His strained muscles told him this situation was, in fact, reality. As far as he could tell, he was the last survivor of Rouen's battalion. A single knight against a never-ending horde of undead folks. But, if this would be the last day in the life of Monterey Jack, he would make sure to take many of his former companions down to hell with him, damned be all.

These hopeless thoughts were interrupted by the sight of yet another party of zombies which rushed in four legs in his direction. Monterey Jack again sent the giant sword up and got ready to suit actions to words. "Oi, rabid critters! want a devour ol' me? Tsk! I swear death wont haf me th' nicht!"

For his absolute surprise – and even disappointment-, these undead rodents just passed by without giving him as much as a second glance. "Huh? Wait! Where are ye going?"

The mouse, tall as he was, looked at the distance and soon found the grim reason he was disregarded like one would disregard leftovers from an entry plate. Not far from the remains of what once was the cage wagon, an isolated group of musketeers – or so he thought - were tenaciously holding their ground, outnumbered as they were by the army of the dead.

"The wagon… Oh good lord, may wee lass Tammy is safe" He whispered hoping against hope.

It was on that moment of grief that a witch suddenly made her apparition at the big mouse's side and got a jump out of him. "Sir Monterye! I'm so glad to find you still alive!"

"Sweet Jesus! G-Gadget!?"

"In the flesh!" She winked playfully, but all she got from the knight was a haunted stare and a hung jaw. "Oh, my bad! I just wanted to tell a joke to soften the shock but it seems the result wasn't what I expected" She shrugged.

The bulky mouse spent a full two seconds to gather himself before answering. "So, yer alive and…" His eyes went down to the girl's wrists. "…free. Girl, did ye-"

"Oh, no no no!" She quickly waved that trail of thought off. "I'd never! I only work with harmless illusions, as my parents would have desired if they had contemplated the possibility of her daughter becoming a witch. Hmm, anyway, the situation here is the work of an evil necromancer… perhaps even more powerful than my sister"

"A necromancer?" Monterey raised his brows at the idea of some other, more sinister sorcerer hiding nearby. One capable to raise the dead from their tombs and command them from afar to prey on the living as he saw fit. The mere thought of a being with that kind of unholy power made him sweat cold. Who in this world could be brave enough to oppose it?

"Sir Monterey!" The blonde mouse called again, this time in a more hurried note. "I need your urgent assistance! Our friends are in danger and surrounded by these undead creatures, and I fear they won't hold on much longer! Please, tell me where my magical cloak is!"

"Our friends?"

"Chip, Dale…" The witch rolled her sky-colored eyes up as she counted with the fingers. "Foxglove, Tammy. So, where's…"

"Lil' Tammy is with ye? Oh, what a relief! What about Zipper?"

"Sir Zipper? I haven't seen him yet… neither alive or dead"

"Oh pally, where art thou!" The knight lamented to the skies.

"I bet he is ok, though!" She raised her palms asking for calmness. "Sir Zipper can be as resourceful as a certain chipmunk I won't mention on this moment. Sooo… my cloak?"

"Cloak? What cloak? Do ye mean the black cloak with the octopus inside?"

Gadget nodded eagerly.

"Aye, Right!" He snapped his fingers as the answer came to him. "I put it in one of the wagon's compartments before leaving for this place"

"The wagon?" Gadget looked over her shoulder. "You mean my cloak was almost at hand the whole time?"

"Err, if by hand you mean secured with stripes and stored below our tools and provisions, then yes"

"Hmmm, I see. Gustav must be so scared! I better go and release it immediately"

"Wait, lass! I'll go with ye!"

"Oh, but I'm already there! Come join us quickly, is not safe to fight alone, no matter what a certain chipmunk says" She pouted.

A chill ran down Monterey's spine as he witnessed the blonde mouse in front of him vanishing into nothingness without so much as a goodbye. "Ach! An illusion?" He rubbed his eyes to make sure. Factually, the only living being in that patch of ground was himself. "Gee, I swear that girl can be as scary as her sister sometimes!"

The knight heaved upwards his greatsword and gave a last look at the night sky to offer a prayer. "Ye hear that, pally? Do not fight alone, come back to me". Then he bravely charged to where the battle was still raging on, to where Gadget's friends were fighting for their lives.

The blonde witch hurriedly finished the spell so her senses could take in again the turmoil around her. At first sight it seemed like Chip and company had succeeded to keep the zombies at bay as the spiked boot of teamwork fell on these wretched foes. Truly, as amazing a couple Chip and Tammy were on the battlefield, they couldn't hold a candle to Dale and Foxglove. The bat and the red-nosed chipmunk knew and complemented each other perfectly, as if they shared some telepathic link that let them share thoughts, ideas and actions. Not only Foxy could follow Dale's lead in a combo of kicks and blows, but the exalted bat senses could predict any incoming retaliation and dodge or warn her boyfriend accordingly in the blink of an eye and without any whisper of a word. If someone had ever needed evidence of the existence of real soulmates, Dale and Foxglove were a shining example.

Also, and unlike Gadget who had enjoyed a pretty quiet and secluded life until recently, both couples were experienced brawlers. The witch could only wonder how many misfortunes her friends had endured to become so skilled, so battle-ready and so eager to solve problems with violence.

Chip in particular worried her the most. Despite the fact their time together could only amount to a few hours of a single night, she wouldn't deem him as a violent person. Yes, he carried knives then – and bow and arrows strapped to his back - but not once he started a fight by himself. All the contrary, he only drew his blades in order to protect her and his friends and when he did so he fought with an ice demeanor and a steel gaze, showing neither hate or fear, simply building his way in battle like a chess player would do. She could say the brave chipmunk was willing to sacrifice himself if needed. Chip tonight was a wild beast overwhelmed with killing intentions. Hate born out of fear reflected in his face, as if some dreadful fate – even more dreadful than falling and standing again as a zombie - would fall upon him the moment he stopped slashing down his enemies.

"Kill them, chipmunk! Kill them all!" Huggin cried out.

"Split that skull in half! Yes, just like that!" Munnin celebrated.

"Gadget is their next victim, see? Will you let them tear her clothes off and devour her?"

"I won't!" Chip growled and threw himself at the zombies in front of him in such a brash way that even Tammy hesitated to join him again. He rushed between a pair of zombies, swords slashing out to both sides, cutting them down. Then he jumped and brought his blades up in a circular maneuver, only to let them fall at a third monster with extreme violence, effectively chopping its arms down. The wailing zombie couldn't do anything else but to try to bite back at its attacker, but the blades went up again and he got itself impaled.

As Gadget studied more closely the actions of her enraged friend she noticed that each swing, each chop and each parry made with these magical swords was followed not only by a trail of sparkling purple feathers, but also by a pair of raucous otherworldly voices that incited him to commit greater acts of brutality against the living corpses in front of him.

It was the gift of clairvoyance granted by Mephisto which let her overhear the echoes of these sinister words and which clearly came from the magical weapons he so tightly gripped.

"No… They are hurting him. These blades are hurting him!" The witch focused to reach her friend through an illusion in the same way he had reached Monterey previously. "Stop! Chip, stop! Don't listen to them!"

It was useless, Chip didn't fell for the trick. The swords didn't allow it. Still she insisted doubling on her effort to the point of provoking herself a headache. "Calm down, Chip! You are not like this!"

This time, a dissonant cackling laugh made up of two entwined voices answered her. "Caw caw caw! He can't hear you, witch! Worry not, we'll take good care of your boyfriend!"

"Just… who are you?" The mouse asked with the fur on her neck standing on edge.

"Who? We are the eyes of Odin!" The beings cried out full of pride. "We are the ravens, we are the blades and we are in control again!"

"Ravens? Odin's ravens?"

Another stream of raspy laughter assaulted Gadget and made her lose contact with the nordic beasts. "Youch!" She shrank back in pain.

It took her one second to hear the sounds of battle again, and half of another one to set on her next course of action. Quick as an arrow she ran towards the remains of the wagon and started rummaging through the mess of wooden planks, iron bolts and dispersed debris. "Possessed! You are possessed" She mumbled as her face got red with suppressed anger. "No, scratch that! You didn't even fight back, you let yourself be possessed! Why, why on earth would you do something that…"

Her words trailed off as soon as she felt the unmistakably smooth texture of silk. At last, there it was, her heirloom. The black silk cloak was hidden in a rectangular wooden box whose lid and bottom got loose in the high-speed crash. Monterey Jack had spoken the truth, as she found the piece of cloth wrapped in a few too many leather stripes and… a padlock... "Wait, a padlock? Come on, he didn't mention that!" Her ire reached a new level, as demonstrated a rapid involuntary eyelid twitch. "Oh, why are males such big liars!"

The safety contraption wasn't much of a rival for a prodigy mouse used to tinker with instrument and mechanisms since childhood. A pair of seconds later that last hindrance was tossed away like garbage together with the leathery strings. She then picked up the mantle, unfolded it and put it on her shoulders in a single spin while beaming a most triumphant grin. After so many ordeals, the last reminder of her father was again in her custody and would never let it part again, this she solemnly swore as she fastened the cloak around her neck.

Gustav, the guardian octopus who lived in the extradimensional space accessed by the folds of the cloak greeted the witch with a hearty tentacle hug.

"Hello Gustav!" the blonde mouse caressed a slimy appendage as it twirled on her forearm. "Yes, it's been a while! You have nothing to fear anymore… I won't let anyone take us apart!"

The tentacle seemed to dance in response.

"Now Gustav, please hand me my grimoire"

No more than a heartbeat later a fourth tentacle emerged from the black bottomless mantle with a black book of spells tightly secured in its grip. The last time Gadget had made use of her grimoire was on that disastrous night back in the village of Saint Pierre when she weaved a spell to make an entire cloud of bats lose their voices. She recalled how dangerous the situation was, with so many people who wanted her dead, and how Chip stood by her the whole time, even offering himself as a shield when the entire cloud came down onto them like a waterfall of curled fangs and blood-chilling shrieks. Oh, how different was Chip now from the gallant chipmunk who protected her back then. Gadget could almost imagine the Chip from today running past her only to get a better chance to hunt these bats down.

That trail of thought only irritated the girl up a notch. "Stupid, so stupid! What was he thinking!? Didn't he learn anything from my tragedy?" So irked she was she put the hood on only to hide her flustered face. Now only the tip of her muzzle and wild bangs of blonde hair were visible, which made her look sinister. "Never mind, I'll fix it. I'll fix you" She declared as she levitated the grimoire up to eye level and magically made the pages turn by themselves. "One cannot succumb to violence if there is no threat to deal with, correct? I just need to recite this spell and…"

Some weird noises, as if somebody were choking on a piece of meat, drew her attention towards a pair of zombies who were coming at her one disheveled foot at the time. They were an inquisitor mouse and a tall rat musketeer, both suffering from missing arms and broken legs. Dawdling survivors from a previous clash of weapons, most likely. This time the witch didn't feel overwhelmed with fear or admiration like in the first encounter. This time she greeted these undead rodents with a wolfish grin. "Aha! Test subjects!"

Dale swung the lute at an ugly zombie's head and knocked it up to the sky. "Nice, darling!" His girlfriend cheered as she picked the still moaning head mid-air and threw it at high speed at another zombie who on that moment threatened to jump at Tammy from behind. The squirrel turned around just in time to see the treacherous cadaver crumbling down with a second skull buried on its chest. Unfortunately, the youngest member of the party took one second too long to recover from the shock of watching a mouse with an extra head where the heart should be. This soon proved to be a fatal error as another feral musketeer used this distraction – and revulsion - to pounce and tackle the girl down.

"Eerk! Get off me!" Tammy cried out as the monster forcibly straddled her. The girl barely avoided being bitten on that very moment by punching the musketeer right on the jaw, dazing it long enough to crawl away some steps. However, just as she was about to stand on her feet a second zombie gripped her by the shoulders and pulled her back to the ground. "No! Help! Someone help me!"

"Hey hero, your young mistress is in danger" Huggin warned with fake concern.

"Huh?" Chip, who was already defending against a trio of reckless ravenous corpses by himself, looked over his shoulder at where the cleric should be. The ranger's face turned ashen as he saw the girl pinned down and held by the shoulders by an undead priest. Another blood-spewing corpse was already slithering on top of her ready to deliver a fatal bite.

"Tammy!" He immediately turned around to assist her but the moment he did so one of the forsaken opponents fell on him with ill intentions. The moment Chip felt the foul-smelling breath on his neck he threw himself to the ground while rolling forward in order to end up on top of the monster who despite being crushed under the weight of the chipmunk still refused to let the ranger go. "Tammy, hold on!"

"Chipper! Help me!"

"Guys!" The bard rushed to save his friends. That attempt, however, was cut short by a number of zombies of different species, sizes and trades who formed a circle around Chip and Tammy and maintained it in a display of discipline not seen before. Astoundingly, each and all of them refrained from attacking the badly armed red-nosed chipmunk as well as refrained from joining their comrades in the struggle to subdue and devour the ranger and cleric at their backs. They simply kept their ground and waited for the evil deed to be done and the screams of their victims to cease. "Let me pass!" The bard threatened to club one of them with his silver lute, but the legion of teeth and claws made him recoil take some steps back. "You monsters! Open the way!"

The bard was about to charge again blindly when he heard the warning shout of Foxy high over his head. "Dale! crouch down!" Quite baffled, he looked up. Foxglove pointed behind of him with trepidation. "Crouch down, I tell you!"

Dale looked over the shoulder and barely had time to dive down as a massive shadow rushed past him. "Whoa!"

"Good move, lad!" Monterey Jack applied breaks and swung the greatsword forward with all the strength and fury he was capable of. "Raaargh!" His growl was akin to a lion's and his strength made the blade whistle a shrill sound as it cut through the air and through the zombie's rotting bodies.

The undead guardians literally disintegrated under the force of the slashing sword and their guts and blood rained down all over the battlefield. And yet the knight wasn't done with them. He used his own momentum to spin around, take one step forward, dug his heels firmly on the ground and send the blade again in a furious horizontal slash that cut clean off the heads of the zombies who had Tammy and Chip pinned down, together with every other inquisitor and musketeer unlucky enough to be in its trajectory. "Die, basterds!" The mustachioed mouse said amid gritted teeth as the greatsword finally came to a halt with the edge tracing an arc on the ground. The knight took a deep and loud breath in, gripped the greatsword again with both paws and lunged forward to mow down the remaining zombies who strangely stood their ground even if they had no chance against the mouse's righteous fury and his sharp blade. By the time Monterey came to a halt there were no more zombies left in that battlefield. They had either found a second death or were writhing back and forth in pieces at the feet of the knight. Soon their hollow screams would cease forever.

Dale bounced out of excitement while Foxglove descended to give Tammy a helping wing. "Wowie zowie! That was amazing!"

"Just amazing, darling?" Foxy shook her head with an ecstatic grin. "It was incredible!" Once the squirrel was firmly hanging from her shoulder, the bat turned towards their savior and smiled to him with gratitude. "Thank you, Sir Monterey, you saved us!

Tammy smiled weakly at Monterey as her friend picked her up. She was outright shaken and visibly scared, but miraculously unhurt besides some scratches in her arms and legs. "T-thanks" She managed to say amid tears.

"Think nothing of it, wee lass" The cold, blunt tone in which the knight addressed her made the trio of friends blink cautiously. Monterey Jack was tense and wary, twirling his moustache with one paw while squeezing the grip of the resting greatsword with the other one. He paid no heed to them, not a single glance, as his whole attention was focused on the black-nosed chipmunk in front of him.

Chip made short work of the moaning rodent carcass that stubbornly clung to his neck and stood straight to face the brooding knight eye to eye. Both disgraced warriors studied each other for a long second in which everything around them seemed to blur away. A long second in which there were no enemies, no friends and no pain whatsoever. Only fiery eyes, mutual contempt and yearning for retribution. Still, none of them took the next, obvious step. They both knew, deep down, there wouldn't be turning back once their weapons pointed again at each other.

Tammy glanced from Chip to Monterey and back, growing concerned and fearful. "Is… is anything wrong, Chipper?"

The knight and the ranger finally spoke up, at the same time and with the same words. "Tammy, get away from him"

There was never a doubt in the cleric's heart as to whom to obey. She quickly went to Chip, reached out and took his arm. "Here am I, Chipper" The fluffy squirrel then looked up at him and whispered. "Please, don't do anything rash. He came to help us"

The way the squirrel searched for protection on the arms of the murderous chipmunk instead of him broke Monterey's heart a little.

Dale also stepped back carefully and joined the ranger's side. "Oh… eh, let no one say I partake with the jailer of my girlfriend"

Foxglove landed right behind her lover. "Dale, please! Don't make him angry"

"Hmpf!" Monterey scoffed at them. "I reckon ye don't trust me anymore"

"You reap what you sow" Chip acidly reminded him.

"Aye, yer right" The big mouse sighed and slumped his shoulders in defeat, much to the chipmunk's surprise. "I've been mulling about that the whole day. The path of righteousness has forced tough choices upon me. I betrayed my commander Julien Montblanc in order to help you on that terrible night. I then betrayed you to gain the favor of cap'n Lefevre again. Aye, for him and for my untarnished name I lied and caged and delivered you at the doors of the inquisition" Here he took a deep breath before continuing. "All of that done in the name of justice, but what did I got as reward? Look, I'm trapped with you in this garden of hell! I've been forced to kill my fellow musketeers over and over again, fearing my only true friend has shared their fate and I'll have to strike him down at any moment out of mercy! I don't know if I could… kill my friend Zipper… The only friend I have left"

Silence fell on that patch of the battlefield after that heartful discourse, with the guilt-struck Monterey Jack bringing a shaky paw to his forehead and Chip and company gazing down to reflect on the words and their significance. It took the knight quite some time before he got able to find his voice again. "I want to… I want to get out of here"

"Golly guys!" A most familiar voice came from high above. "You are making Sir Monterey cry!"

"Gadget!" They all shouted in unison at the sight of the blonde witch riding on her broomstick and garbed again in her oversized black silken cloak, very much like the first time Chip met her. The only detail that made this occasion any different was that the girl was wearing her hood on, which gave her a more sinister aura.

"No, no, I'm not crying" The Scottish mouse clarified while quickly wiping away a tear. "I just got some dirt in my eye"

"There, there" She made some circles around them and finally landed gracefully at the side of the Scottish mouse. "Everything is going to be fine" She said as she patted the wide shoulder of the knight. "We are all together now!"

Chip was the first to protest. "Wait, wait! That ruffian was ready to deliver you to the inquisition this same day, Gadget!"

Tammy, as expected, gave Chip her support. "Have you forgotten what that lizard musketeer said to us? Monterey Jack captured Chipper and sent him to Rouen's gallows!" Her own eyes welled up as she squeezed the ranger's arm. "He could have died there! Now are you asking me to forgive his captor?"

The emboldened Dale also spoke up. "Right! He kept my fiancée locked up in that cage the whole day! I used to think he cared about us, but he is clearly our enemy!"

"Dale, hold on!" The pink bat blushed. "Actually, being in that cage was my own choice"

"What? But, why?"

"Oh, you see…"

The witch couldn't believe what she was just witnessing. "For shame, guys!" She pulled her hood off, wiped her bangs out her face and walked towards Chip and company quite vexed. "Are you really judging him for doing his job? Monterey Jack is a knight, what else would he do but to try and arrest us? We are not exactly model citizens, you know? Well, except maybe for Foxy, but you get the point" Then she turned back to face the big mustachioed mouse again. "Each of us live our lives doing the things we think are right. It would be wrong of me to resent you because of the actions you've taken, law enforcer, So I won't hold any grudges against you" She then tossed one bang aside and adopted a pondering pose. "Besides, despite all your efforts, me and my friends got reunited again. Despite all odds we finally found each other and I think that's what matters most"

Gadget's companions looked at each other and realized how true these words were. So busy they had been fighting for their lives to even appreciate for a moment the significance of being in each other's company again. To support each other through these dreadful moments after many days stranded in their own private nightmares. "She is right, she is right!" The bard squealed. "Even though we are still trapped in this horrible place, I feel nothing but joy because you guys are here at my side" He pulled Foxglove into a heartful embrace. "I love you all, guys!"

"Aww, cutie!" She said as she smooched him.

"Hear, hear!" Chip raised his fist approvingly, which in turn caused Tammy to giggle a bit.

"Ye bonzer party of pals, ye all" Now it was the turn of the big Scottish mouse to speak his mind, and he did so acidly. "Zipper considered ye pals as well, and he is still out there somewhere, probably fighting for dear life while you are here singing victory! Ach! enough chitchat. I'm off to save him! Wait for me, pally! Help is on the way!"

"Wait, Sir Monterey!" Foxglove's ears sprang up. "I still hear murmurs on the distance. Gurgling moans coming and going. It's not safe to go alone"

"Hpmf! Surely a few corpses who got lost on their way here. Avoid their bites and ye'll be fine. It's all it took for some comrades to join the dark side"

Gadget, always the scholar, heard that and brightened up. "Oh, so the old manuscript about zombies from my dad's collection was accurate. Wonderful!"

"Now that's downright scary" Monterey shook his head.

Suddenly Foxglove became very still. "Shush, everyone!" She pleaded. "I hear more howling sounds and also I hear… a multitude of treading noises. A stampede?"

"Stampede? Please tell me you are joking, lass"

The ranger knelt and placed the palms flat on the ground. His expression quickly became as tense as Foxglove's. "The ground is shaking with footsteps" He stated as calmly as he could. "I can only say they are many. Too many and they are coming this way"

"Shouldn't we then be running away for our lives? Move, people!" The bard prodded his friends to hurry up.

"Nay lad, it's useless. There is no place to hide to. Never fear, I can take on all of them! Let them come at me!" Monterey said as he cracked his knuckles.

"Hey hero" Munnin whispered in the back of the chipmunk's conscience. "Why don't you take your women to that abandoned rodent palace?"

"We see no zombies there" Huggin seconded. "And the fat mouse can help you put the doors back in place and hold them shut"

"Yes, the palace!" Chip tapped his palm with a fist. "We can still make it back to the inquisition palace! Let's take shelter there!"

"Right!" Both Foxglove and Tammy nodded.

Monterey, on the other hand, refused to follow. "I won't hide while Zipper is in trouble! No way in hell!

"You cannot help Zipper if you die here, dolt!" The ranger and the bard pulled him by the shirt. "Just go!"

"There they are, guys! Oh god, it's a whole army!"

The cleric couldn't be more correct. More zombies than she could count, more than any of them had seen that night, came into sight as they congregated on top of the hill. Musketeers mixed with inquisitors mixed with smallfolk. Their fleshless tails whipped back and forth impatient and then, just as if someone somewhere gave them the order, they came forth in a sudden rush, some upright and swaying back and forth as if they might tip over with every stride, others hunched and scrambling in all fours.

"Back to the palace!" Chip commanded. "Run!"

"Right, right!" Monterey finally obeyed.

Chip had barely taken a pair of steps when he noticed Gadget hadn't moved a single inch. Instead, she was simply drumming fingers against her leg in an oddly relaxed posture, facing the incoming horde of monsters with nonchalant indifference.

"Gadget? What are you doing?" The chipmunk tapped her shoulder.

"You shouldn't worry anymore, Chip. I have everything under control. I'll be back in a jiffy, ok?" The becloaked witch winked at him a second before leaving to face the hunger-crazed monsters alone.

"Gadget, wait!" The ranger shouted as he sprinted towards her.

"Chipper, come back!"

Monterey held the squirrel firmly by the shoulder. "Tammy, ye crazy, lass? Stay close to me!"

"No, let me go! Chipper!" The squirrel girl called one last time before being shoved back by the strong arm of the knight.

The ranger got to the witch's side just as she started weaving her paws in a series of intricate figures. "You've got a last card up your sleeve, correct?" He said as he stepped in front of her and drew her swords while adopting a martial stance. "I know you do. You are the most amazing girl I've ever met". He added as he gripped his swords more fiercely. In response a flow of feathers leaked off the edges.

The witch granted him a faint smile but kept her eyes closed in deep concentration. "I told you to stay back"

"No way, we are a team!"

As she felt the summoning of magical forces got ready to blast off, she asked her friend one last question. "Do you remember the cloud of bats we fought together in Saint Pierre?"

"Of course I do, I could never forget it" He answered over the shoulder.

"Will… Will you protect me now like you did it back then?"

"You know I will!" Chip said amid gritted teeth as the dark eyes sparkled purple with resolve. "I swear I'll kill everyone who dares to hurt you!"

It was an answer that made Gadget bit her lips in grief. "I was afraid you'd say that"

These words hit the ranger hard. "No, wait. I didn't mean that. Look, if we survive tonight I'll explain everything to you" He whispered as he braced for the incoming strike.

"Who says we won't?" The witch opened her radiant eyes and released the spell she had been sewing this whole time upon the army of zombies. The very next second her foes stepped aside and ran past Chip and herself as if the pair were nothing more but a boulder in the way of a torrent of water. Monterey and the others were spared in the same fashion. This was just the first effect of the witch's spell, as immediately after the zombies turned on each other and started devouring themselves. The promised battle quickly devolved into something more akin to a free-for-all match in which the undead decided to satiate their rabid hunger with other undead while living flesh was of no significance.

Chip himself stood agape at the raw violence of the scene unfolding in front of him. "H-how?" He asked as he quickly lifted a foot to dodge a wailing head without nose that came rolling his way.

"Sorry for the unsightly display" Gadget said flatly as she passed by him and kicked the skull back to the cannibal orgy in a highly detached manner. "It couldn't be helped. They won't bother us anymore, though. Come on, we must find our small friend Zipper"

"Gadget!" Chip insisted. "What did you just do?"

She folded her arms on her waist and rubbed her chin thoughtfully. "What did I do? Well, I cast upon our undead enemies the most powerful illusion I've ever woven" She explained while a smile of satisfaction grew on her face. "For the first time ever I was able to trick not only sight, but also other senses like taste and sound and smell. Now these zombies believe each one of them is eating a tasty piece of roasted beef. Even better, we have become effectively invisible for them"

"Roasted beef? How did you know they would fall for that?"

She just shrugged. "Why, trial and error method, of course! A pair of subjects I came across before were of much help"

"I see… still, you have left me speechless"

"Everything is fine now" She smiled as she came closer to him. She took the ranger's paws on hers and squeezed them. "Chip, you don't have to fight anymore, you understand? The battle is over"

By the time Chip found his words the rest of the group had joined Chip and were just as taken aback as him. "Does your spell will fade if we get too close?" A most wary Dale asked.

"Not really" Gadget stated as she pulled her broomstick out her magical cloak. "In the world I created for them we are as interesting and desirable as a pile of rocks"

"I see…" The bard scratched his head as he witnessed how an undead inquisitor mouse munched on the disemboweled femur of a musketeer. "Oh, this will surely give me nightmares later"

Both Foxglove and Tammy already were covering her eyes. "I can't take this horrible scene anymore!" The squirrel shuddered. "They are eating each other and we are in the middle of it all! Let's just leave this place behind!"

"Agreed!" The whole party nodded.

As they left the carnage behind, Monterey Jack came to a disturbing conclusion. "How interesting, most of these undead musketeers used to march on the vanguard line, which was commanded by cap'n"

"Is Patrick among these bewitched zombies?" Chip asked as he helped the blindfolded Tammy jump over a twitching headless torso who was blocking their way.

The big mouse stopped and took another good look around him. Even as a veteran of a hundred battles and two hundred adventures, this level of butchery gave him shivers from head to toes. "Nay, mate" He said as he overcame the revulsion. "Mah cap'n isn't among these voodooed chaps"

"Perhaps they are together, Zipper and Patrick" Dale added pacing two steps ahead already.

"We can only hope" The knight seconded and made the jump over the torso. He staggered a pair of steps after landing. Precision jumps had never been his forte.

Foxglove and Gadget, meanwhile, had taken to the air hoping to get a better view of the garden and even spot more survivors. The wall quickly came into view, and beyond its gates flickered the lights of oil lamps and candles coming from the bordering neighborhood's houses. How bizarre, the bat thought, that humans and smallfolk living on the other end of the wall could spend this same night totally unaware of the horror that came to pass only some meters away from their beds.

"Up here everything is so different, isn't it?" Gadget said while closing her eyes to feel the wind caress her face. "The night sky always soothes me"

"It sure is a stark contrast against all the suffering down there" Foxglove commented, then glided closer to the witch. "Suffering you've caused as well" She accused.

"Me?" The mouse blinked. "Do you mean Chip's suffering?"

"No! I mean these zombies… the way you make them eat each other, it was simply cruel!"

"Oh, that!"

"They used to be people, you know? We could… we could just escape and hide, like Chip said!"

"I… Sorry, I don't really share your opinion, friend" She shook her head and gripped the broomstick tightly. "I don't regret anything, because I did what I did for Chip's sake"

"For Chip's sake?" Foxglove raised a brow. "How so? You put him in harm's way when you decided to stay instead of escape"

"I assure you the situation was always under control! I just couldn't stand the idea of Chip wielding these horrible swords one more minute, so I decided to end the battle myself. Swiftly, mercilessly… Like Lawhinie would do""

"And yet Chip stood ready to die for you, didn't he? It reminded me of that battle against my father back in Saint Pierre"

Gadget bit her quivering lips at that memory and the bat could tell her heart was racing. "No, it was not the same. Not at all!" She exploded. "Haven't you seen how much has he changed in this few days? The way he willingly abandons himself to rage and hate? The way he relishes with each killing blow he sends? That's not… That's not…"

"That's not what?"

"That's not the Chip I got in love with!" She suddenly confessed.

"Oh God!" The bat gasped shocked. "I'm sorry, I thought…"

"Don't be sorry" She wiped a tear off. "I shouldn't have said that, should I? Anyway, to answer your question, I don't care if I made these necromantic puppets suffer more than the social norms of this country allow. I did it to stop Chip from hurting himself and I'd do it again!"

Foxglove noted a bit of desperation creeping into the edges of the witch's voice. "Uhm, got it" She said as lightly as she could, then concluded it was best to put some distance between her and the fuming m

The rogue bat and the wit kept on flying in somber silence. Gadget sunk in thoughts about the nature of Chip's magical swords and how these used her name to influence him. She also wondered if revealing her feelings that way would give the chipmunk some trouble. "In this life at least…" She muttered suppressing another tear.

"There!" Foxglove announced out of a sudden. "At the base of that large flowerpot!"

"You are right! There he is!"

"Oh mother…" The bat gasped at the grim scene unfolding down there. "Gotta warn Monterey Jack at once!"

"Sir Monterey! Sir Monterey!" She called as she dived towards her companions. "We found Zipper!"

"Thank goodness!" The bulky mouse sighed in relief the moment he heard these words. "Where, lass? Where is he?"

"To the east, behind that flowerpot! Quickly, he is in the middle of a battle and is losing!"

"Ach, mah poor pally! Hold on Zip, help is coming!"

Monterey Jack shouted an indecipherable battle cry and broke into a run, leaving behind everybody else. "Wait, Monterey!" Chip managed to grip the edge of the knight's shirt as he was leaving, but it slipped out the chipmunk's fingers. "Dammit! Foxy, how many zombies are there?"

"Only one!" Foxglove said with dread as she landed next to him. "It's… captain Lefevre"

"Oh no..."

Monterey Jack felt a shiver run down his spine as the field behind the garden ornament came into sight. Musketeers from Rouen laid dead everywhere around him. Zipper's fellow scouts Asmund and Grimkell were among them. A detail the knight soon discovered but couldn't quite comprehend was the absence of zombie remains. Quite the contrary, every one of these corpses had perished only once, perished permanently by blade injuries. "What just happened here? A mutiny?"

"Monty!"

Monterey Jack turned around and his heart immediately skipped a beat, for he found his dear friend Zipper engaged in a duel of rapiers with none other than captain Patrick Lefevre, who stormed the little fly with a series of lightning-fast cuts and blows. "What in God's name?"

"Monty, help!" The scout pleaded again almost out of breath. He could barely keep the guard up, much less strike back at his opponent.

"Cap'n! What the hell are ye doing!?" Monterey demanded as he joined the battle on the scout's side with an air cutting swing. "Zipper is on our side!"

The bloodstained lizard opted to dodge and retreat one step back, as the slender rapier was heavily outmatched by the knight's two-handed sword. He then adopted a defensive stance, while his lips curled up in a mocking grin. "Sir Monterey Jack" The hissing tone was now heavier, creepier. "Making a big entrance, as always"

"Monty, I knew you'd come…I knew it" Zipper dropped to the ground exhausted, injured and defeated.

"Pally!" The knight turned to catch his scout friend, barely managing to do so before the fly hit the ground. Curiously, Patrick made no attempt to interfere with the timely rescue. In fact, he snickered and crossed the arms expectantly.

"What in God's name is happening here, cap'n?" Monterey glared at Patrick as he nestled the small insect in his arm. "Explain yourself!"

"Orders, Sir Jack" He grinned playing with the rapier's tip. "I followed orders like a good soldier would"

"What orders?" The knight demanded to know.

"A simple one. No one leaves this place alive!"

"The captain has gone crazy!" Zipper flinched. "He killed Asmund and Grimkell… he killed the survivors…"

"Sir Monterey!" Dale, followed closely by Tammy, called as soon as he spotted the big mouse. "Phew! Did you find Zipper?" The breathless chipmunk asked a second before realizing they weren't alone. "Oh cripes! It's the lizard!"

"Oh, you must be that minstrel I've heard so much about!" Patrick deduced by the multicolored outfit and the strapped lute. "I see the lovely innkeeper is with you as well"

"Captain Lefevre…" Tammy cautiously moved towards Monterey.

"Lass, please take care of Zipper, he's wounded!"

"Yes, at once!"

The cleric squirrel whispered a prayer from her mother's spell book she had memorized during these days of captivity in the bowels of the river boat. For Monterey's amazement and Patrick's displeasure, her paws began to radiate a white and divine light. A more powerful version of the 'cure wounds' spell she had used in Saint Pierre was cast upon Zipper, who welcomed these feelings of peace and warmth as the blade injuries he had sustained in his desperate battle were healed in a breath-holding display of white magic.

"So, it turned out the young girl you so stubbornly defended was, in fact, a witch" The captain berated at the mustachioed mercenary just as the divine light faded and the shadows of the night enveloped them again. "Now you must feel stupid"

"Nay, cap'n" The knight offered a prideful grin. "After witnessing this I actually feel like everything I did for her was worth the pain I got in return. But you sir, how deep have you fallen!"

On that moment Gadget and Foxlove descended to ground level. At the sight of them the lizard commander couldn't help but chuckle amused. "Oh, even the lovely witch and the lovestruck bat are here! So that only leaves one chipmunk missing…"

The cold sharp edge of a sword punctured the musketeer's back as soon as he finished to talk. "I'm right here, Patrick" Chip said darkly and with narrowed eyes as he fought the urge to backstab his long-time nemesis repeatedly and mercilessly.

"Humph! Sneaky as always, like the devious criminal you are" He said with scorn as he held his scaly paws up. "Looks like you got me now. Or perhaps is the other way around?"

"I hardly believe so" Chip retorted. "We have you surrounded, murderer. It's over!"

"Why cap'n!?" Monterey Jack shook his fist. "Why did you turn on your own soldiers?"

"Orders" He shrugged first, then shook the head suddenly and violently. "Orders, orders, orders!" A behavior that made Foxglove pull Dale closer in fear.

"Whoa! This lizard really lost the marbles!" Dale said as he wrapped his arms around his girlfriend.

"I reckon this whol' situation was too stressful for him" Monterey wondered.

"No…" Zipper, who was still in the care of Tammy, rose to his knees. "You don't get it. The living corpse of Arlo bit Patrick in the arm moments after the earthquake hit us. I think Patrick himself is becoming a zombie!"

"Crikey…"

"Captain Lefevre!" Gadget jumped off her broomstick and defiantly walked towards the musketeer. "Who gave you the order to kill your own soldiers?"

"Master did it, of course!" The frantic lizard answered in a fit of sanity.

"Master?" Monterey frowned. "Who are you talking about?"

"Mephisto?" Gadget mumbled, hoping she were wrong for once.

"No! Not that devil!" Patrick retorted with an offended expression in his face. "Someone more powerful, someone more glorious: Enzo Moretti!"

"Who?" Everyone except Chip asked in confusion. The black-nosed chipmunk merely raised a brow, as the memory of that name in that littered bounty notice struck him.

"That's ridiculous!" The ranger finally spoke up. "Even Dale's bounty is greater than his!"

Gadget, on the other hand, was willing to believe. "Chip wait, perhaps he's telling the truth! I kind of remember…"

"I can still hear him" Patrick interjected. This time, he took a step back while his gaze kept fixed on the blonde witch. "He is now urging me to kill you all"

"Hey, stay still!" Chip ordered taking a step back as well. "You'll hurt yourself!"

But the ranger's own demons had a different opinion. "So what? Let the fool stab himself!" They suggested, and Chip found it was a tempting idea.

"Enzo… master is…" The lizard kept mumbling as he took yet another step back. This time, the tip of the fabled blade pierced the ribcage and lungs. "Hrrgh!" He grimaced but still kept going backwards, as if pushed by some invisible force.

"Cap'n!"

"Chip, don't do it!"

"Gurrggh!" Patrick spat out black blood from the mouth the moment the murderous blade protruded out of his chest.

"I couldn't help it!" Chip negated with the head. "He just let himself fall on my sword!"

"Oh god!" Foxglove looked away. "He's dead!"

Tammy and Zipper stared at the scene perplexed.

Suddenly, a hissing laughter broke the silence. "Heh heh… Heh heh heh!"

For everybody's horror, Patrick raised his head again and looked around with his pupils constrained and the neck bent in a strange unnatural way. Then he snapped maliciously at Gadget. "Master has spoken! He wants you dead, witch! You'll join Lawhinie in the grave!"

"Lawhinie!?" These words took away the female mouse's composure. "What have you done to her? Answer me!"

"She is now surrounded by dolls" The musketeer spoke cryptically. "She wants to kill my master Enzo, can you believe it? Stupid witch, master is dead and so am I! Soon you two will be dead too"

Swift as a lion the undead Patrick Lefevre unsheathed his rapier and pounced at the witch which was caught totally off-guard. Fortunately, Monterey Jack read the movement just in time to step in and protect Gadget with his own body. The musketeer never reached them, though, as Chip managed to hold him by the tail in the last second.

Gadget blinked astonished. Not at the sight of the lizard who stubbornly tried to take one more step on her direction, but at the fact that Chip had actually thrown these evil swords away to protect her.

Patrick turned towards the hero who kept holding him back ungracefully. "You little... paws off my tail!" he seethed as he thrusted his blade at the chipmunk's chest.

The bold - but unarmed – chipmunk let the scaly appendage go and rolled to one side to avoid get stabbed. Huggin and Munnin didn't let their host down, and so the discarded swords turned into a flurry of purple feathers that materialized again in the ranger's paws. He welcomed them unconditionally as he raised to his feet and presented a fighting stance. "I won't let you hurt her, Patrick!"

With the cursed blades also came the old sting of wrath and wickedness, feelings he embraced altogether if only to protect the life of the mouse of deep blue eyes and fearful expression who stood in front of him. "I won't let you …" He claimed with a hissing voice and bared fangs. "I won't…"

"No, Chip…" The witch felt her heart break again. "Don't…"

"Die together, then!" Patrick cried out.

The ranger and the musketeer exploded into motion and jumped at each other's throats. With the clash of blades came the hateful glares and cursing threats. Despite the fact the musketeer was outnumbered in weapons two to one, his innate dexterity and flexibility balanced the scales. He worked his wrist up down expertly to block the chipmunk's chained blows and retaliated with just the same degree of rage.

On Patrick came in a rush, with Chip barely able to fend off the humming strikes despite being assisted by the ethereal ravens. Sharp blows rained on him from every conceivable angle, and instinct alone had Chip parrying and twisting away from the assault. He needed an opening to strike back, perhaps force one in exchange for an injury, and such opportunity quickly arrived in the form of a stab he allowed to connect right above his left elbow. The chipmunk's teeth clenched as he braced to receive the painful and burning sensation, but refused to concede a step back. Instead he used this opportunity to send both his swords down and up again looking to impale the lizard right on the waist.

The shrewd Patrick guessed the maneuver correctly and stepped aside while keeping the rapier embedded in his hated enemy's flesh. Chip's gambit failed and had to jump one step back to get free. The grimaced expression he made as he lifted his left arm again was too much for his friends to bear.

Tammy pulled the knight's shirt histerically with one paw as she protected Zipper with the other one. "Are you not going to help him, Sir Monterey?"

"Don't you dare interfere!" Chip roared as he stole a glance at his companions. "I'm about to end this once and for all!"

"I agree!" Patrick smirked. "You kids wait your turn"

"I'm sorry, lass" Monterey shook his head. "I'm not one to interfere in mano-a-mano duels. You must have faith on your pal Chip"

"I do! It's just…"

"Guys, guys!" The bard called out. "Chip won't likely lose to one single zombie, right?"

"Patrick is different" Zipper rose up from Tammy's embrace. "He can't be killed. I tried… many times"

Zipper's words become true as Chip fooled Patrick again with a dual horizontal slash that sent both swords from right to left and forced a desperate parry with the slim rapier. The brute force of the blow sent the weapons in an arc that broke the opponent defensive stance. The ranger then sprung forward and hit the musketeer on the chest with a charging shoulder. It was a dirt trick that made Patrick stagger back a full second. A frame of time long enough for the ranger to step in and slash him across the chest with his returning right-handed longsword. "Gotcha!"

The ranger's companions gasped in unison first as a gush of black blood poured out the lizard's injury and again as he suddenly stood firm just in time to block Chip's finishing move. "Hah!" Patrick grinned as his rapier flew to meet the left sword one millimeter away from his neck. "It's useless, Maplewood!" He gloated. "My master has made me immortal! Mere swords can't kill me, I'm invincible!"

"Rrgh! Goddamn bastard…" the chipmunk cursed as he jumped back and parried the lizard's retaliatory strike.

It was then that Gadget noted hints of tears welling up on the chipmunk's fiery dark eyes. At first she thought the pain from the arm injury had become unbearable but then quickly dismissed that idea as another explanation ringed in her mind. Someone was again drowning her beloved friend in a pool of painful emotions for some evil unfathomable reason. She knew who the culprits were and she wouldn't stand for it any longer.

Gadget made use again of her demonic gift to enter Chip's mind. "Chip, it's me, Gadget! Please answer me!"

And again, the bird-like voices answered on behalf of the ranger. "He is busy, witch!" One answered while the other snickered. "Give him a minute!"

"No!" Gadget raised her inner voice. "Tell me what are you doing to him! Why he doesn't answer me?"

Both ravens laughed raucously, like a pair of theatrical villains eager to brag about their latest nefarious scheme. "You are dying to know, don't you? We can give you a glimpse of what keeps him fighting so viciously"

"What keeps him fighting so desperate"

The Nordic ravens shared with the witch the image that hammered the ranger's thoughts over and over. A most hideous scene, in which she saw herself as the last victim of Patrick Lefevre. The immortal lizard had killed everyone, and was standing over her prone body victorious. The ravens had even added gruesome details like a pool of blood that tainted her robe, her cloak and her hair. The same blood tainting red the musketeer's boots and cape. And Chip, poor Chip on his knees crying out of impotence and grief.

"How dare you…" Gadget said growing furious. "How dare you two create this horrible illusion to torture him!"

"The fool deserves it!" Huggin hissed. "The chipmunk thought he could be make us yield to his will"

"He thought he could control us, and make certain we didn't take more lives together with him. He thought we would play by his lame rules"

"Chipmunk might have learned how to prevent us from taking over his body, but little does he knows we found another way to make him taste blood and enjoy it"

"We control his emotions now! His hate, his fears, his love for you and you alone. He is willing to murder to keep you safe and we sure will take advantage of that sentiment!"

Gadget felt like crying too upon these cruel revelations. "Why!?" She asked again. "Why do you want him to become a murderer so badly?"

The voices turned serious, even solemn as they answered that last question. "There is a snake in our father's garden, and this arrogant chipmunk pledged himself to slay it in exchange of saving you from your devilish deal. The moment this snake, your master, is no more in this world, the contract you signed will burn to ashes and you will be as free and mundane as the rest of these pathetic mortals"

Gadget's mouth fell open, barely believing what she had just heard. "So that was Chip's plan all along? To kill my master and set me free?"

"Pfft! Sure, he can try to" The ravens now sounded like holding their laughter. "And you'll see him became a quick snack for your hellish overlord"

"I'd never…"

"Don't worry your pretty little head about it!" They quickly announced, and the mouse took offense at that comment. "Hate and bloodlust will turn our furry host into the devil's merciless slayer. This 'torture' as you call it, is now bearing fruit. Did you see how your friend summoned us into his grip to murder this hated enemy? Failure is not an option to him, as failure means to him the gruesome image in his mind will become true"

The blonde was close to losing her self-control completely. "You monsters… You are hurting him, you are twisting him and driving him mad! I will- I will never forgive you!"

"All for your sake, witch! All for your sake!"

"No!" She yelled at the top of her lungs, and found herself back in the battleground, next to her companions who got startled by the sudden scream and quickly took her by the shoulders, lest she fell to her knees shaking like a leaf.

"Gadget, are you all right?" The very concerned Dale asked while patting her paw insistently.

"I'm fine, I'm fine" She assured them while running a paw down her face. "Oh God, what I'm gonna…"

"Chipper! Look out!"

The commotion unwillingly caused by Gadget made Chip glance at her for a split second. An opening which Patrick used to send the rapier past the magical sword's cross-guard and puncture its wielder's fingers. The chipmunk winced in pain and dropped the sword on reflex, but kept enough of his wits to retaliate by sending the opposite sword at his foe's neck. The lizard barely had time to recoil the rapier back and send it up again to block the attack. Both blades clashed again, both opponents grabbed each other's wrists and twisted them. Any last trace of chivalry was thrown away as they got locked in a manner of strength contest fueled by raw hate. Chip knew he had to subdue the musketeer right there, to bring him down to his knees and cut that sneering head, or else he would do the same to him and Gadget would be left defenseless. Not against Patrick, but against her master and her contract. He had to win, he had to live and he had to kept going.

Then it happened.

A booming explosion on the distance turned the night sky into day with a blinding light, followed by a ball of fire that ascended to the heavens and caused a heat wave so fierce that knocked down everybody unfortunate enough to be out on the streets at that late hour.

The entire city of Paris woke up. The entire city of Paris screamed in terror as they gazed at the tongue of fire that twisted and twirled up all the way to the stars. The entire city of Paris then fell to its knees praying for mercy, for they thought the end of times had arrived.

And Gadget could only mutter a single word. "Sister…"


	14. Chapter 14 - Chains of friendship

**Chapter 14 – Chains of friendship**

Tammy opened her eyes just in time to witness the last twisting contortions of the impossibly high column of fire. "Lord have mercy…" she whispered as the heat wave passed over them. It took many seconds for the air to be tolerable enough to breathe again. A rain of ashes and hot embers began to fall all over the city.

The cleric then rose to her feet and looked around to make sure her friends were safe. Dale and Foxglove laid on the ground wrapped in a protective embrace, with the bat tucking the head on her boyfriend's shoulder waiting for the echoes of the blast to die in her sensible ears. Next to them the despised witch stood frozen in shock, looking up at the ignited sky with both paws covering her gaping mouth.

Monterey Jack, on the other hand, had his gaze set on the scene unfolding right in front of him: Patrick was down on his knees, defeated; Chip and his swords looming over him threateningly. "Stop, mate!" He pleaded. "You got cap'n on the ropes already!"

"Surrender now, Patrick" Chip ordered ready to deliver the last blow. "It's over!"

The lizard simply drew a long, pained breath. "It's as you say, over" He slumped his shoulders in defeat. "The witch, the blonde witch, killed that necromancer! Now I feel… I feel free"

"Cap'n?" Both Monterey and Zipper stepped closer.

"Captain Lefevre…"

"Mercenaries" He addressed them with a weak grin. "So you are the only survivors of this massacre"

"You didn't make it easy for them, though" The ranger accused acidly. "For any of us"

Here Patrick coughed blood. "Too bad it ended this way" He lamented. "All of my soldiers are dead, yet you, ranger, live (Cough!). You fucking murderer… You fucking spawn of satan (Cough!)"

Chip stood his ground and watched the defeated lizard be consumed by hate in his last moments.

"I'm dying now… I won't see the next morning" Patrick said bitterly. "But you will, Maplewood. And when you wake up tomorrow, I want you… I want you to remember my name… and the names of Ceasar, Fabrice, Artus and Colombe"

A pained expression crossed the chipmunk's face, but Patrick didn't got to see it. He had crumbled to the ground, dead at last.

"Goodbye, cap'n" The mustachioed knight looked down and saluted. "Shame it had to end this way"

Tammy, who had kept her distance this whole time, finally stepped in. "He… is dead, isn't he? This musketeer I was so afraid of, the one who put me on that cage and caused so much sorrow to me and my young sister is finally dead!"

"Tammy…" Foxglove patted her shoulder.

"I'm sorry, guys" She looked away still distressed. "I wish I could forgive him that easily"

"So, Enzo Moretti is dead as well" Chip muttered pensive while sheathing his purple swords in the waist scabbards. "Also, at the hands of Lawhinie, if I understand correctly. Was that gigantic explosion her doing?"

"If it was, what an inmense power she has" Zipper looked at the distant smoke clouds and feared for the people living on that district.

"Perhaps it was Lawhinie's self-destruct spell?" Dale offered, and promptly covered his mouth upon the haunted expression the blonde mouse flashed at him. "Ups, I'm sorry Gadget, I didn't mean to say that"

"No Dale, you may be right" Gadget took a deep breath, refusing to let actual fear take hold of her. "My sister could be hurt! Or worse… could be hurting others! I must go to her at once!" She stated looking back at her friends.

"Wait, that could be dangerous" Foxglove argued as the mouse ran to pick her broomstick up. "That whole district is on fire, you could suffocate if you get too close!"

"I'll figure something out" The witch said with her eyes set again on the distant chaos. "I always do".

Chip hurried up to join his friend and her levitating broomstick. "Gadget, let me go with you!"

The way Gadget pursed her lips made the chipmunk freeze, but what she told next him next hurt him more than any sword wound would do. "I don't want you to come".

"W-What? But why?"

The witch lowered her gaze for a brief moment, if only to drown that little feeling called love and convince herself that Chip was, in fact, dangerous and unpredictable. Then she met the chipmunk eyes and said as bluntly as she could: "Because, I'm afraid you would hurt Lawhinie the moment you meet her again"

Chip's heart dropped. "No… I just want to help her!"

Gadget shook her head, each time growing more anguished. "I can't take any chances. Please understand!"

"I only understand… that you don't trust me" He said crestfallen.

For any answer, the witch jumped on her broomstick and lifted off the ground. "These two ravens aren't your friends, Chip. If you…" Here she gripped tightly the handle of the broomstick. "If you really feel something for me, then get rid of them!"

Chip threw at her a blank stare. "So you know about Huggin and Munnin?"

The blonde mouse flew in a circle around her friend, studying him up down with growing concern. "How could you change so much in only two weeks? You now have feathers were there should only be fur!"

"What? That's… not true"

"Witch, what are you talking about?" Tammy raised her voice. "Chipper just saved us all!"

Gadget turned her back on the ranger and hovered towards the cleric. "Here, Tammy. I give your grimoire back"

"Oh!" The cleric got hold of her mother's spellbook as soon as it came out from the magical cloak and promptly pressed it against her chest. "Glad you remember before leaving to your sister's side!"

"I advise you to look up for exorcism spells" Gadget said cryptically as she threw a glance to Chip over the shoulder. "Might need it later"

"E-exorcism?" Tammy raised her brows.

With only that parting advice the blonde mouse darted up to the sky on the direction of the catastrophe.

"Gadget!" Chip called one last time, to no avail.

"She really is gone" Tammy quietly said, carefully hiding her relief as her hated rival got lost in that tarnished night sky. "She really left Chipper behind"

"There, there, Chipper" Dale patted his friend on the back calling him by the pet name. "Our witch friend was right go leave you behind. If Lawhinie really is in town, she'd burn you into a cinder on the spot. She hates goody two-shoes like you with a passion!"

"Ugh" The ranger sighed in defeat. "I admit I didn't see it that way. Still… it hurts…"

Foxglove also joined the discussion, albeit timidly. "Guys, I think we should focus on ourselves for the time being. Have you… Have you realized we are like, free?"

"Free?" Both Tammy and Dale said in unison, with Chip still gazing at the distance.

"Yes, free!" She made a twirl to emphasize the meaning. "The musketeers, the inquisitors, they are no more! Only us and… oh…" All eyes, even Chip's, turned towards Sir Monterey Jack and Sir Zipper, the last remnants of the feared Rouen battalion. "We are free, right? The bat asked cautiously.

The mustachioed knight met their expectant gazes and after a moment of contemplation he raised the palms up in defeat. "I don't know what do you expect from me, laddies. I have no commander, no prison to take you into, no one to pay for my troubles. Any desire to stand in your way is gone. Right now my only wish is to see the sun rise again, simple as that"

Tammy couldn't agree more. "I think we all wish the same, Sir Monterey"

It took the weary Gadget one full hour before she could get to the district in which the epicenter of the conflagration was situated. One full hour of struggle against the hot wind which carried embers, debris and wailing screams from the people below. The entire city had fallen victim of chaos and fright, with every church tolling their bells in a massive call to invoke God's protection. The devil was loose in the city, the clergymen assured, and the fire was his doing.

By the time the blonde witch reached the zone of disaster the mile-high tongue of fire had faded to nothing and the flames that once engulfed these wooden buildings had extinguished as suddenly and mysteriously as it came to life. Astoundingly, miraculously, the fire that threatened to devour the entire Paris had burned itself out in a single breath. For Gadget this renewed her hopes to find her sister alive, as only she could command fire to extinguish itself. The grim consequences, however, remained for everybody to watch and tremble. "Oh sister, what have you done?" She muttered as she glanced from one burnt house to another, from one injured human to another, from one frightened rodent to another.

The path of destruction finally led Gadget to a certain alley of smoldering remains where soldiers, firefighters and many onlookers surrounded a scorched hole in the ground that used to be a workshop: the place where the first witnesses claimed the tongue of fire had been unleashed.

Nothing was left from that particular building except for its blackened foundations. That and a signboard that ended up encrusted in the wooden doors of the house across the street by the sheer force of the explosion. Said signboard read "Doll Store" and gave the witch an ominous, uneasy feeling. "The musketeer said something about dolls" She recalled. "Surrounded by dolls?"

Gadget made a quiet and soft landing on the damaged but still standing roof of the house closest to the epicenter. It was then that she finally noticed a group of firefighters holding in place a middle-aged man who wouldn't stop shouting about witchcraft at the top of his lungs.

"The devil did it!" The man exclaimed and everybody paid him attention. "He entered my workshop and possessed my dolls!"

"We all saw the flying doll!" A most perturbed citizen confirmed. "Bloody thing levitated in the air!"

The doll-maker covered his face and cried, as the whole haunting played again in his mind. "The dolls, my dolls, they attacked us as we ran outside the house. Oh God, they had fangs and claws! Fangs and claws!"

Gadget's heart dropped as she saw the wife of that man trying to calm their infant son down, but the child would not stop crying. His little face was covered in ashes, as were her mother's and everybody gathered there.

A pair of city guards took hold of the shaken man, tied his hands together and made him climb on a wagon. His wife protested but was pushed back violently. The whole situation escalated the moment some onlookers stepped in her and her husband's behalf while others sided with the guards branding the whole family as witches.

Gadget used this chance to cast invisibility on her and dive to ground level. On her way she passed by the crying child and, overwhelmed by guilt, she stopped to cast an illusion to comfort him at least for a short while, and to hide the reality of his parents getting arrested in front of him. In front of the boy danced bards, performers and trained animals under a sunny day, very much like a circus parade. Gadget put her whole heart in the creation of such graceful illusion, and undoubtedly the human mother would have appreciated the gesture. The bewitched child calmed down and even started to smile and giggle at the images that filled his mind. All of this while his father was taken away and her followed the wagon with him in her arms.

"If only I could offer a prayer for them" Gadget whispered crestfallen. She gave the humans one last glance. "But one needs a soul for it to work". She then turned towards the frontal frame of the building. The only sign that a house once stood there.

On the other side of the burned frame the mouse found a basement filled with charred wood. Gadget deduced correctly that the fiery explosion had sent the planks of the store floor one story down effectively creating a pot of searing embers and sharp wooden debris .

"So, this is the place" The witch looked anxiously around that ashen landscape, hoping to find any clue about the whereabouts of her twin. "Lawhinie actually fought a necromancer here" Her heart was now racing, trying to imagine the battle between one mouse and army of possessed dolls commanded by a black wizard. "Sister, what made you do such thing?"

No sooner had the witch spoke when the night breeze uncovered a doll head buried under a layer of ashes. The disembodied face stared at Gadget with black dead eyes and curled up lips that gave a most macabre smile. Very few things in the world were capable to disturb the mind of the genius scholar Gadget Hackwrench, porcelain dolls were oddly one of them. A cold shiver from head to tail overwhelmed her. "Golly!" She exclaimed rubbing her arms up down. "I must commend Lawhinie for defeat an army of these monstrosities"

She silently stared at the distance, uncertain of what to do next, when a certain crevice on the other side of the field strangely got her attention. A crevice not different in shape or concealing darkness to the multitude of gaps and fissures that made these ruins an ash-covered wasteland for someone of her size. There was absolutely nothing special about that place so far away, but the mouse nonetheless couldn't help but to be attracted to it. "I wonder…" She trailed off as she set out to make her way across the smoky landscape and investigate that crevice closer.

Halfway there Gadget started to doubt her actions. "Hmm, It's indeed a long shot, isn't it, Gustav? But my heart is telling me to hurry up and see that place for myself. I mean, if Lawhinie follows her guts instead of the voice of reason most of the time, her twin sister can do the same once every waning moon, correct?"

The blonde witch reached the crevice at the exact time when a cloud withdrew just enough to allow a ray of moonlight to illuminate its entrance. "Another signal?" With growing determination she stepped in, and soon found a narrow passage made of piled wooden planks and stones that lead deeper underground. "Glad I don't suffer from claustrophobia" She said under her breath as the threshold got out of sight and darkness enveloped everything again.

The brave and invisible mouse kept going one step at the time, pushed forward by an ever-increasing feeling of urgency. "Please be here, please be here" She muttered over and over as she quickened her pace to finally reach a broad chamber at the end of that tunnel.

Lawhinie Hackwrench was in there.

The evil twin was found resting flat on her back against the dusty ground of that chamber, seemingly still with the arms and legs wide spread. Her jet black velvet dress was ripped apart and her body showed a multitude of cuts and bruises. The long blonde hair fell on the rocks tangled and polluted. Her breath was fast and uneven, desperately gasping for air.

The good sister was about to run to her sibling's side when a strange thing made her stop mid-stride. She had just witnessed Lawhinie's dress slipping off slowly by itself, and her owner simply nodded and lifted her hips to help it happen.

"G-golly…" Gadget jumped one step back as she saw a mist falling over her sister and reaching for her neck. Even more shocking, was the way the evil twin welcomed and even wrapped her arms around it with lustful motions and a broad wolfish smile on her face. "Sis…"

Gadget's whisper was cut short the moment Lawhinie moaned in pleasure. The mist had settled on her bare breasts and was somehow applying pressure on them. In response and while biting her lower lip, the evil witch reached for her bloomers and slowly, sensually, pulled them down to her knees. A single name escaped her mouth as she again shivered in pleasure: "Sabrina…"

Unable to tolerate the scene any longer, the blushed-red Gadget turned back and left them alone. "Golly, oh golly…" She muttered over and over as she made her way out that cave and onto the open field. Once there she called for her broomstick and took off to the nocturnal sky, as high and away as she could.

Only until the cold air hit her senses was the witch able to regain some measure of self-control. "Oh god, Lawhinie" She muttered running a paw through her hair. "What have you done?"

Never had Gadget felt so disturbed in her entire life. Even the zombie carnage from earlier seemed to like a minor campfire-worthy anecdote compared to find out in the worst way possible her dear sister Lawhinie was a spectrophilic. A lesbian spectrophillic, to be precise. "W-well, at least she is in good health" She said in an attempt to comfort herself. "That's what matters most, right?"

"Sabrina…" Gadget murmured morosely. Among the many lessons on science, mature and mathematics that Mephisto taught to her came the revelation that ghosts existed and walked almost imperceptible to mortal beings. Ghosts were lost souls who either refused to leave this reality due to unfinished affairs, were chained to earth by their own sorrows or wrongdoings or simply weren't aware of their own deaths. Sabrina was a poltergeist, a type of ghost trapped in a cage made by their own suffering. A cage that usually corresponded to the physical space in were they died. According to that definition, Sabrina's cage was the Hackwrench manor in the distant city of Cologne.

Gadget had learned that from time to time sensitive people can perceive and even communicate with these wandering souls; her sister Lawhinie was one of these few gifted ones. It was Lawhinie who told her sister and parents the name and appearance of their house's ghost, though they quickly disregarded the revelation as another childish game of the unruly girl. Lawhinie's imaginary friend was the cause of a few too many arguments with their mother, while father was more patient and even encouraged her daughter to keep the friendship alive. "Perhaps because I preferred to read books than to spend time playing with my sister" The witch lamented.

Time passed by, Geegaw and Isabel Hackwrench died, and one certain night Gadget was busy choosing what book to read next when she realized the entire collection and the shelf itself had been dusted thoroughly. When she turned around and complimented her sister for finally stepping up and do house chores Lawhinie simply shrugged and nonchalantly affirmed that Sabrina would be the house maid from then on. The good sister would have considered that a bad joke except for on that precise moment the duster enveloped in mist floated by itself from one corner of the study to the exit door. That was the first time the house poltergeist interacted with the bookish mouse in such an unabashed way. On the following months the ghost maid won over Gadget's trust and even her esteem, even though it was quite clear she served Lawhinie first and foremost.

"And now" Gadget rubbed her eyes. "My sister somehow summoned her far away from home… And they are a couple! For how long have they nurtured that forbidden love?"

The troubled witch decided it was better to take a rest to decide the next course of action. Just like any other demonic entity, she needed a safe place to rest and hide during daytime. Still, she really didn't feel strong enough to come back to Chip's side again and retake the discussion about his horrible swords and horrible patron, and she sure as hell didn't want to come back to Lawhinie's side and be witness of her carnal activities again. "A hostel it is, then!"

She dropped down and made a soft landing behind some crates in a quiet street taking advantage of her invisibility spell. Once she stored her broomstick in the safety of her magical cloak she called off the illusion and dared to walk among the smallfolk as she had not done in months. She put her hood on, however, introvert as she always was.

Ashes were still seldom raining down when the cloaked mouse arrived at a rodent neighborhood. It seemed to her that any other night the place would be quite lively and bustling with activity, but tonight almost everyone had locked themselves in their nests waiting for the worst to come yet. Tonight fear permeated the air in that alley, as it did everywhere else in Paris.

Gadget ended up at the doors of a rodent inn with the curious name 'Le refuge du prince'. "The prince's hideout" She translated as she pulled its door open. A dozen of cheerless gazes fell on her the moment she stepped in. "Huh… Bonne nuit!" Gadget greeted the patrons in french with a few traces of german. There came no response, as both rodents and insects kept staring at her with suspense. Even the local bard – a red-nosed violinist hamster – halted his performance at the sight of the mouse draped in a black cloak who entered the place in such ominous night.

The witch gulped down and slowly turned around toward the exit. "Perhaps this wasn't a good idea" She thought as she bit her lower lip and reached for the doorknob.

"Wait, milady!" A mature feminine voice called out. Gadget looked over her shoulder and found a stocky middle-aged red squirrel with beehive hairdo waving at her from behind the counter. "Please milady, don't let these weirdos scare you off. Come, come!" She signaled. "Are you looking for a room?"

"Actually, I am" Gadget took her hood off. Collective murmurs and sighs of relief followed, as these commoners actually expected the cloaked mouse to be the devil who set the city on fire hours ago. Besides, none of them had ever seen such a beautiful mouse coming to this inn – coming to this neighborhood - before. Even the lady on the counter made a double take at the allure and charm this visitor radiated without the scary hood on. The blonde mouse, on the other side, felt double as embarrassed by the unwanted attention.

"Oh, milady!" The squirrel took a pair of acorns from under the counter and filled one with wine. "You are truly a blessed sight in this night of trouble". She then raised the acorn and addressed her customers. "Isn't that right, plebeians!?"

"Hear, hear!" The smallfolk joined the ovation enthusiastically, turning the overall atmosphere of the place a bit warmer and welcoming, if only for some seconds.

"Hear, hear" The squirrel grabbed the bottle of wine, poured some on the second acorn and offered it to the witch. "This one is on the house"

"T-thanks" Gadget took a sip. She wasn't particularly fond of fermented beverages, but tonight seemed like a good time to test their legendary ability to make people forget their problems.

"You'll have to pardon my clientele's behavior. Not even in their wildest dreams these poor saps would expect to meet a covered-up high-class woman like you. Me, on the other side, used to be lady-in-waiting for the royal family years ago" Here she looked away dreamily and grinned. "My noble lady and I used to slip out Versailles every other night to meet our lovers in secret, wearing black silken cloaks just like yours. Oh, good times!"

Gadget offered a comprehensive smile, took another sip and decided not to inquiry about how did her new drink companion and former lady-in-waiting ended up as an inn keeper in that modest district of Paris.

The old squirrel stomped her acorn hard against the table. "Eugene!" She threw a gaze to the minstrel. "Play something lively for our new guest!"

"Aye, Madam Tania!" The red-nosed hamster nodded and put actions to words in the form of a nameless tune that evoked nostalgic feelings on the patrons.

As the tune echoed through the place, Gadget took some moments to appreciate the peculiar scene playing before her, what with a fluffy squirrel innkeeper who very well could be the image of Tammy within thirty of forty years and a minstrel owner of a big red nose who fortunately wasn't a chipmunk or she would have no option but to label this situation as a major cosmic coincidence. "A conundrum, if you will" Gadget chuckled at such idea.

"So…" Tania stood straight. "You want a room to spend this horrible night in a safe place?"

The witch in disguise jolted out of her reverie. "Huh, what?"

"A room for tonight?"

"Ah, yes!" She affirmed with an energetic nod. "Do you have one available, then?"

"We have a few, yes. Ten gold nuggets per night, paid in advance"

Gadget made a motion as if searching in an inner pocket of her cloak. In reality, she made signals with the fingers to the octopus guardian to retrieve some coins from her travel savings. "Do you accept Cologne marks?" She asked as she put ten rodent-sized gold coins on the table

"Oh!" Tania gasped wide-eyed. "I'll even add a pair or meals, milady!" She promptly put the coins under the counter, away from peering eyes. "Second question: Are you a nocturnal mouse? Or a diurnal mouse?"

"Positively nocturnal!"

"Mhhh" The grey-haired squirrel pondered for a moment, then called someone over her shoulder. "Hey, Chev! Our rooms for nocturnal guests are all cleaned up, correct?"

Gadget blinked agape as a middle-aged black-nosed chipmunk peered from inside the kitchen. "Yes, woman!" He reproached. "I cleaned them myself yesterday, remember?"

"Yes, yes, I just wanted to be sure!" The innkeeper signaled the chipmunk to go back to the kitchen, then turned back to her customer. "We have high-class rooms for nocturnal beauties like you to rest safely and comfortably" She announced proudly, and her expression changed to one of concern upon the mouse's slacked jaw. "Are you all right, milady?"

"That… was a chipmunk?"

"Who? Chev?"

"Chev?"

"Did someone call my name?" The old grizzled chipmunk stepped out from the kitchen with two knives strapped to his belt. "It was you, Tania?"

"Not at all, now get back to work!"

Chev grunted and turned around. "Ugh, bossy squirrel!"

"Grumpy chipmunk!"

Upon Gadget's expression of incredulity, the old squirrel simply laughed off. "Oh darling, don't pay attention to us, hubby and I talk to each other that way all day long"

The mouse's eyes went wide. "You… are married?"

"Twenty-four years and counting on!" She rummaged in her apron's pocket and produced an engagement ring which displayed a humble orange opal on top. Then she leaned closer to the mouse's ears. "One word of advice, sweetie. Never listen to those people who say a chipmunk and a squirrel cannot marry and live happily ever after. Buffoons all of them, I say!"

"I…guess so" Gadget said struggling to remain calm as this situation escalated from peculiar to bizarre. "Tania and Chev. Tammy and… Chip?" The echo of that vision from nights ago where she foresaw them together in a distant future stung her heart again. It hurt now as much as it hurt back then.

Tania witnessed as her new guest lowered her gaze. "You look tired" She incorrectly guessed. "Come on, let me show you to your room"

"Thanks" Gadget said as she followed. "I really need to lie down"

"You'll find the beds here are quite comfy, dear" Tania confidently declared as they took the stairs down to the basement, where the hostel rooms were carved in the building's foundation rocks. "I'll even ask Denys to tone his performance down a notch so you can sleep easier tomorrow"

"Denys?"

"My hubby's cousin" Tania casually explained as she stopped in front of a room with the number five engraved in its door and fumbled some seconds with her keychains. "He's the daytime entertainer. Owner of a nose even bigger than Eugene's. Makes you wonder if having a red nose is essential to become a minstrel around these parts"

"Golly and a half…"

"Anyway, milady… make yourself comfortable. I'll send you dinner shortly"

A pair of hours later, Gadget lied on the bed staring intently at the ceiling of her darkened room waiting for the cursed slumber to overtake her. "Plan isn't going as expected, daddy" She said while hugging tight the silk cloak. "I was supposed to be in the middle of the sea right now, in my way to America, but I took a wrong turn…"

She immediately scolded herself for calling her encounter with Chip 'a wrong turn'. "No, meeting Chip not a mistake! That was… my fate"

A tear rolled down her face. Reincarnation. Rebirth. To cross paths with Chip every lifetime. That was her fate: beautiful, promising, exciting. And she screwed it all up by selling her soul to the devil and becoming a witch. The smartest witch in the world, with only one life left and a place reserved in hell for all eternity.

A dreadful thought flashed in the witch's already agitated mind. These horrible ravens mentioned that Chip had pledged himself to slay her master Mephisto in exchange to release her from the devil's contract. Wouldn't that practically make Chip her enemy? Would she be able to raise a hand against the chipmunk who just wanted to help her? What if her master gave the order to kill him?

Overwhelmed by these and a thousand other fears, Gadget finally decided the curse couldn't come fast enough and so she cast a sleep spell on herself.

The long night of the devil finally came to an end.

The next morning an unassuming human gardener got the scare of his life as he stumbled into the rodent battlefield filled with corpses of mice and rats. It was not a pleasant sight, and definitively not a pleasant job to get rids of all these remains.

Zipper, who had returned to the cringe-inducing field following his instincts and sense of smell, chuckled at the cascade of curses in french the poor human uttered as he went to retrieve a shovel. The scout, too, left the place and returned to the rodent palace.

"Good morning, Zipper mah pally" Monterey saluted from his place at the doors of the inquisitorial palace. The mouse was sitting on a rock, enjoying the morning breeze and the warm embrace of the sun and following the actions of that human gardener.

The fly fluttered towards the broad shoulder of his friend. "Good morning, Monty" He then looked at the distance, at these gardens were the battle had taken place hours ago and now all evidence of it ever happening was being buried again. "We all made it, didn't we? We all made it to see a new day"

"Aye, pally. The nightmare is over. No more zombies, no more death, no more fire. Only a peaceful September morning. And a foul-mouthed gardener to clean the mess"

"I'm hungry, though"

"Take it as a signal that we are alive. Come on, let's go look for the pantry"

The heavy steps of the knight as he passed through the corridor made Tammy wake up with a jolt and a squeal. She promptly covered her mouth ashamed, sat down and turned to her right side, where Chip was still in a deep slumber. The girl had spent the night next to the black-nosed chipmunk, soothed by his warmth and tenderness. She even remembered a certain moment in which her darling wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her closer. "Or it was just a dream?" She asked herself blushing red. The cleric spent the next minutes delighting herself in the graceful and manly features of the ranger - her infatuation for him had only grown these days they were apart– and couldn't help but to praise the heavens for allowing her to be together with him once again after so many trials.

"Chipper, my chipper…" She ran a paw across the chipmunk's tuff. "You know I lov…" Tammy's confession got cut short when a loud snore at her back destroyed the tender moment. Dale and Foxglove where cuddled up together on the corner of the hall the group was using as safe ground. "Dammit, Dale" the squirrel stood up and stretched, all the time eyeing darts on the direction of the minstrel. "show some consideration for your friends and your girlfriend, will you?"

Foxglove snored loudly again.

"Oh…"

Later that morning the ranger finally opened his eyes. "Huhnng, where… where am I?" Memories from the day before fell on him like a stream of cold water. The battle against the zombies, Patrick, the fire, Gadget's sudden departure. "Gadget…" Chip jumped straight on his feet and looked around in a spin. Only the sleeping forms of Dale and Foxglove were there with him in the room. "Oh no!"

On that moment Tammy, Monterey and Zipper walked in, and a smile drew on the cleric's face at the sight of her beloved chipmunk. "Chipper! Good morning!" She waved and ran to him excitedly. "You won't believe what I found!"

"Tammy!" The ranger held her by the shoulders quite alarmed. "Where is Gadget? Did she come back already?"

The girl's expression dropped from one of joy to one of bitterness. "The witch, you ask?" Right then Tammy felt like screaming, but managed to control herself by clenching her fists so hard the nails dug in the skin. Still it hurt, it hurt in more than just one way. "Is always the same, isn't it?" She swatted off the paws of Chip and stepped away. "You only worry about that witch you barely know! What about me? What about…"

The insulted girl bit her lips and stormed off the room.

"Wow!" The not-so-small voice of Huggin quipped. "Look at how you repaid her kindness. Not even a 'good morning' for her. Truly, Romeo can't hold a candle to you, douche!"

"Seriously! That young mistress watched over your ass all night, even waking up to apply white spells every time you whimpered in dreams like the little crybaby you are. Ugh, you don't deserve her love"

Even Monterey and Zipper stared at Chip disapprovingly.

The black-nosed chipmunk scrubbed a paw over his face. "Dammit! You are right! I just panicked and… Argh, I'm such a dolt!" He bolted towards the exit. "Tammy, wait!"

"Easy mate!" Monterey managed to grab and held him back. "I wudn't go afta 'er if I wer ye'" He explained. "I saw the lass brandishing a sword mere minutes ago"

"Yeah, let her blow some steam off alone" Zipper added in sympathy. "We don't want any accidents here, do we?"

"Argh!" The ashamed ranger scolded himself one more time. "I guess it's safer that way"

"Douche…" The ravens echoed once again.

"But to answer your question" The fly rubbed his chin pensive. "Gadget hasn't come back yet. I wonder if she fell asleep in her way here"

That last statement sent alarms all over Chip's body, and the mercenaries immediately took notice. "Hey hey!" Zipper flew over and patted the chipmunk's shoulder. "You know she's a smart gal, I'm sure she got a safe place to rest and hide. Have some faith!"

"I guess… I guess you are right" The ranger took a deep breath of resignation. "Sorry I panicked there"

"Here mate" Monterey handed him breakfast. "Let's sit down, have some porridge, talk"

Chip accepted the offer and the bowl of soft food. "To Talk? What about?" He asked as he sat down and crossed his legs, thoughts still wandering off to his missing friend.

"Eh, you know" Monterey sat as well in front of the ranger with another warm bowl on his paw. Second breakfast for him that morning, but that was not worth mentioning. "Let's start with the future, shall we? What are you planning to do now that you and your friends are free?"

"There is only one goal for me now" Chip answered resolute. "I'm going to find and kill that devil, Mephisto!"

"Ahh, to vanquish the evil from the land of the living is always a glorious and blessed quest, just ask Saint George, slayer of dragons. Hell, after watching you yesterday I'm pretty sure you are up to the task. However…" Monterey shifted on his place uneasy, then leaned forward inquisitively. "What about Tammy and the others? Are you planning to take them with you in search of that monster?"

Chip opened and closed his mouth, as if he hadn't considered that before. "No" He finally shook his head categorically. "I was the one chosen to meet Mephisto in battle, not them. My friends have faced enough monsters for a lifetime. I want Dale and Foxglove and Tammy to forget all of this and live happy, peaceful lives from now on. Me, on the other hand, still have this last daunting quest on my shoulders"

Monterey sat straight again and gazed at the still opened door. "I can totally picture Tammy thinking otherwise. The lass would follow you to the gates of hell with our without your permission"

"No, that's out of the question!" The chipmunk raised his voice. "I would never let Tammy get close to that monster!"

Zipper, too, shared his own thoughts. "And what about Gadget? Isn't Mephisto his master? Is she going to betray him just like that?"

"I… we haven't talked yet" The chipmunk shrunk on his seat. "But all of this, I'm doing it for her own good. I'm sure she'll understand…"

"Women, blessed be them, have a knack to complicate things" Monterey said solemnly, but then he broke in a snicker. "You know, I once met another female, expert at foil one's plans. A mousette of slender figure, green eyes and hair down to her shoulders; one who talks with a heart-melting french accent and who will go to great lengths to achieve her dreams, even if that means becoming a thief, a pirate and a slaver"

Chip gulped down and looked at the knight curiously. The only name that could fit that uncanny description came out from him in a whisper. "Desiree…"

"Aye, Desiree" The burly knight sighed, almost expecting to hear another name for these labels. "You fought against her two nights ago, at the pier, didn't you? No need to lie, Foxy and the minstrel already told me everything"

The ranger shook his head dubiously. "If you already know, then why do you want to hear it again from me? Knowing Dale he should have described my duel with her at length and with great detail, perhaps even better than I could recall it"

Monterey waved his paw dismissively. "Oh, he did, he did alrite. And now I can only thank you, Chip Maplewood"

"Huh? What for?"

"For not killing Desiree. I was told you were this close to do it"

The ranger nervously took another spoonful of porridge. That was one victory he wasn't proud of. All the contrary, the idea -both scenario and consequences- of him failing at regain control on that last fateful moment had tormented him these last nights to no end. The ranger inhaled deeply to send that horrible thought away. "Contrary to what you've seen" He finally declared. "I don't enjoy murdering people. That's totally not who I am"

"Desiree D'Allure is my fiancée, you know?"

Chip's sudden stare of incredulity made the big mouse snort. "Hah! That's the same face Dale did. Oh, you chipmunks…"

"But… but…" Chip struggled to find his voice again. "She is a pirate and you… huh, you are a lawful knight!"

Monterey turned serious, even gloomy. "It turned out… it turned out Desiree is darn good at keeping secrets. I don't think even her father knows about the shady hobbies of her daughter. It falls on me to stop her, for her own good. I'll save Desiree from that path of evil, be sure of that!" He finished the sentence smashing a fist on his palm.

"Sounds like you also got served a daunting quest"

"Aye!" He nodded putting the bowl aside. Then he stood up, towering above his chipmunk companion, with Zipper fluttering above his right shoulder. "And for the first time in many ways I can see a clear path ahead of me! No more doubts, no more regrets, no more ambiguity! Only a righteous purpose"

"Any idea where she could be?"

"Les innocents. Revenot's crypt. Your friends heard Desiree mention that place many times during their time in captivity"

Chip offered the knight an approving smirk. "So you are leaving, huh?"

Monterey chuckled amused. "I already bid farewell to everybody here, mate. You are the last one on my list. Crikey, didn't know you were such a heavy sleeper…"

"Hey, give me a break!" Chip jested as he stood up. "Yesterday's was my first open battle ever!"

"And what a battle we fought!" Monterey Jack raised a fist quite dramatically, then turned to the chipmunk again and put a paw on his shoulder, glancing at him with a look of absolute pride. "You showed a big amount of courage and leadership in these difficult moments and for that, little ranger, have won my respect"

"And mine too, of course" Zipper saluted.

For the first time ever, Chip Maplewood and Monterey Jack shook paws. "Perhaps one day, we'll see each other again" Monterey smiled.

And for the first time ever, there was peace between the ranger and the knight. "I'm looking forward to it" Chip smiled back at him.

"One last word of advice" The mustachioed mouse pulled Chip closer. "Whatever you do, keep Tammy safe. Girls like her are a treasure, one you will gaze upon only once in a lifetime. I did everything in my power to protect her, and now I bestow upon you that responsibility. got it, 'Chipper'?"

Monterey and Zipper left the hideout and their new friends behind. Chip followed them from a spot next to the petrified scribe until they got lost beyond the sea of grass in their way to the main gate. He stood outside a while more, daring himself to enjoy the morning sun and recalling his own encounter with Desiree's D'Allure. The ranger's old mentor Andre used to say that the best way to gather knowledge about a person was to face them in a duel to the death, and by following that line of reason Chip could say he knew the dangerous villainess a bit too much. "I wonder if Monterey will be able to reason with her" He said out loud.

"To reason with who?"

The startled chipmunk quickly turned around, and found his squirrel friend leaning against the frame of the entrance doors, hugging the famed cooking book tightly and looking back at him with a dejected expression. "Tammy?"

"Sir Monterey Jack and Zipper have gone in search of Desiree D'Allure, right?" The cleric stood straight and looked past Chip. "I hoped they'd stay with us longer, that pirate doesn't deserve such level of devotion". There seemed to be a bit of resentment creeping into the edges of her voice.

The chipmunk negated with the head. "Love makes people forgive wrongdoings, I guess"

"Love? Don't talk to me about love!" Tammy suddenly exploded. Only then, when the girl came out of the shadows, did Chip realize the sword strapped to her back. One she quickly drew and pointed towards him. "Don't talk to me about forgiveness". Her eyes narrowed and her voice began to shake. "You hurt me with these words"

The white grimoire magically got suspended in the air next to her, which added another layer of hostility to the already incensed cleric.

Chip slowly raised his palms unthreateningly. "Tammy please put down that sword" He pleaded. "Listen, I'm sorry for what happened earlier. I should have been more thoughtful. Believe me, I didn't mean to offend you"

"I wanted… I wanted to show you this sword" Tammy's voice broke. "Don't you recognize it?"

Chip got silent. What the squirrel was wielding was a longsword, one light enough to be used by a female teenager like her. Besides that, the pommel at the end of the grip sent a faint familiar vibe, but right on that moment he was more concerned about defusing this strange situation than to recall a plethora of french heuristics symbols. "Can't say I do" He cautiosly admitted, only to watch Tammy swallow hard and her fur stand on edge. "Tammy, why don't we…"

"Then…" The cleric suddenly lifted the sword in a spin over the head and attacked her companion with a swift slanted slice. "Then look at it closer!"

The surprised ranger barely managed to dodge as the blade cut the air too close to his chest, thanks in part to the timely warning of his supernatural companions. "Whoa!" Huggin exclaimed quite amused. "This girl is going all out!"

"Pfft! You reap what you sow. Right, hero?"

Tammy didn't give Chip a moment of respite. She immediately chained that first strike with a flurry of relentless chops. The tears that ran down her cheeks betrayed her, though, as every move she made was accompanied by a cry of grief, which source the chipmunk still had to comprehend.

"What's to comprehend?" Huggin echoed. "You hurt her feelings and now she is going to wreck you good"

"Stop dancing around and summon us to your side, ranger!" Munnin demanded. "Let's discipline your mistress together!"

"No!" Chip refused. "I won't let you hurt her! I'll solve this myself!" He managed to kept control of himself, despite the efforts of his ravens to exacerbate hateful thoughts against the girl. "Tammy, stop!"

But the girl didn't stop of even slowed down. The lightning-fast attacks soon left marks on the chipmunk's shirt, cutting the fabric and the skin despite his best efforts to dodge and protect himself. Pain racked his body and made him flinch more than once, but still didn't dare to raise a paw against his friend.

"How could you forget!" She berated again as she gripped the sword with both paws and pulled it back with the intention of sending the weapon forward afterwards in a wide arc, pretty much like how the mustachioed knight would do.

And that's when the clever ranger saw a chance. Tammy's inexperience – or perhaps recklessness – caused her to leave the guard wide open as she started to drag the sword forward again. Chip used that split-second to jump in to close the distance and hold the squirrel prisoner in a hug. "Gotcha!"

"Let me go!" The young cleric twisted trying to break free, but Chip wouldn't allow it. After some more seconds struggling in the arms of the ranger, the girl finally gave in. "This is not fair" She wept as she hid her face on the ruined shirt and the sword slipped off her fingers and down to the ground.

"Just calm down, ok?" Chip whispered as soothingly as he could, giving her a caring embrace devoid of hard feelings, no matter how much the cuts on his body hurt. "Tammy, did you really wanted to kill me?"

"Of course not, Chipper!" She looked up to him with watering eyes. "I was ready to heal you up once I made you remember"

"Remember what?"

"The sword!" Her throat swelled up too much for her to keep speaking. Tammy sank to her knees and Chip quickly followed. "This is my father's sword!" She declared amid tears. "The one who was mounted in the walls of my family's hostel!"

Chip felt as if time had stopped right then and right there. Tammy was totally correct. The same coat of arms displayed proudly on a wall back at the Squirrel family's inn was also emblazoned on the pommel of that sword. This was undoubtedly the sword that disappeared the same day Gerald and Elizabeth Squirrel left the village. "Where… where did you find it?"

"It was stored in a room at the end of the corridor" The girl explained. "A strange room of studded doors and filled with cloth-covered furniture. It also had a shattered mirror, shards were everywhere. I was exploring it and then I recognized my father's sword tossed away in a pile of rusted weapons in the darkest corner! Tossed like garbage!"

"It can't be…" He whispered wide-eyed. "I went into that same room! How could I miss that sword?"

Tammy studied the face of disbelief of her friend. "You forgot everything about it, didn't you?"

"No, I…"

"Yes, you did!" Anger build up again. "You forgot about my father, forgot about my mother! You forgot about them the moment that witch entered into your life!" The sorrowful girl started to throw weak punches against the ranger's chest. "How could you forget about my family!"

"Enough, Tammy!" He grabbed the girl by her wrists and pulled her into another embrace. "I could never forget Gerald and Elizabeth, they were my friends too and it hurt me to learn of their deaths! The monster who killed them will die by my swords, I promise!"

"Mephisto…" She whispered. "That's what Lawhinie called him"

"A devil from hell, stuck in the body of a black cat" The chipmunk recalled.

Tammy's expression grew bitter again. "Now hold on a second!" She pushed herself away from Chip and stood up wiping the tears off her face. "You think I'm a fool? The only reason to battle that monster is to save your ditzy charming witch from his claws! My family's murder had nothing to do with that decision!"

"Whoa, busted!" Huggin broke into a sarcastic laugh.

Chip jumped straight on his feet, both offended and exasperated. "Tammy, I swear I'm doing this for Gerald and Elizabeth as well!"

"I… I really don't believe you, Chipper"

"Why not?"

Here Tammy dropped her shoulders and her hostility, leaving only a sad girl who was about to open her heart to her crush. "Because I know you very well and you are devoid of any malice or ill thoughts toward others. You are, on my eyes at least, a rescuer first and foremost. One who takes lives out of duty and for a greater good. That's why I cannot imagine you striking at that devil for vengeance"

Chip was left out of words.

"But my parents don't need a rescuer, it's too late for that" Tammy said honestly as she picked up the sword and stared intently at the crest on the pommel. "They need an avenger, one who will make their murderer suffer a tenfold for what he did before he exhales his last breath"

"Tammy, listen to yourself" The ranger pleaded. "Even if that Mephisto was turned into a common cat, it's still too dangerous to face an animal like that!"

"So what?" Tammy hung the sword on her back again and folded her arms across the chest defiantly, giving him a frown. "You want to do the same! So it's dangerous for me but not for you, is that what you try to say?"

"Well, it's dangerous for everybody" He admitted. "but I remind you I'm the only certified fighter in this group!"

"Plenty of things have changed since we left our village, Chipper! Now I have become a very competent cleric! I can heal wounds, cure poison, dispel curses, even revive the dead!"

"Huh, what?"

"Oh, forget about those zombies from yesterday, this is a white spell. For it to work the victim must be a fresh corpse, no more than ten minutes dead, and it promises to restore the party member to 'Alive enough' status, whatever that means"

"Wow, you really sunk your teeth into the grimoire, didn't you?" The ranger raised his brow as a smirk flashed on his face.

Tammy sighed with resignation, and Chip was thankful this turn in the discussion had calmed her down a bit. "I guess I owe that to Gadget" She conceded. "She was the one who convinced Desiree to lend over the book to me during these awful days we spend in a boat. If it were not for her quick thinking…"

"She is a smart one"

"Ugh, she is" Tammy scoffed glancing down, then went on to take the chipmunk's paw on hers. "Chipper… you have your own reasons to fight Mephisto, and I have my own reasons. Let's go to battle together, for my mother, for my father, for Gadget… Please, don't deny me my right to avenge my parents"

Chip pursed his lips, still doubtful. "I promised Monterey to keep you safe"

"The best way to keep me safe is at your side" The squirrel stepped back with a smug smirk she had learned to draw by watching the ranger. "Besides, I'll let you know that if you refuse my offer, I'll have to resort to some others, more furtive, methods to achieve my goal. One way or another, the moment you come face to face with that evil cat I'll be there next to you sinking this sword in his heart!"

Gadget opened her eyes and found herself walking through an unkempt, forsaken garden adorned with dusty marble statues depicting naughty naked fauns. A decayed fountain stood at the center of the place, where all the paths converged. The sun was at her back, setting down behind the mountains and casting long shadows that appeared to gather at the farthest and darker corner of the garden. A corner where climbing shrubs and branches had multiplied and entwined so much that a natural cave made of vines and dried leaves had raised from the ground. And the mouse felt compelled, even urged, to enter that pitch-black cave that attracted darkness and repelled the orange sunset light away.

But she knew the place wasn't real at all. She had learned to search for the threads that made an illusion work; the nuts and bolts that kept the scenery pieced together; the faint whisper that repeated over and over that this was reality when it was, in fact, an elaborate trap.

Gadget shook off the feelings of anxiousness that assaulted her and came to a stop right at the mouth of the breathing cave. ""I'm not in a garden" She flatly said to herself as she looked all around. "I'm not standing in front of a cave, either. I'm sleeping on a bed, waiting for dusk to come"

As the final words of that statement died off, the witch witnessed the appearance of a crack in the empty space right in front of her: tangible proof of the mouse's victory against this trap for the mind. The witch smiled with a feeling of pride at her achievement, only for it to be replaced with a growing wariness that made her fur stand on edge. She had just heard steps at her back. As she turned around her heart skipped a beat, for her Lawhinie herself was there as well. "Sis…ter?"

Strangely enough, the evil sister didn't answer or even glanced at her twin. She kept on walking towards Gadget and at some point she straight out passed through her, as if the illusionist was an illusion herself.

The perplexed sister turned around again just in time to see Lawhinie came to a sudden stop and then drop to her knees grabbing her head. "Ouuuh! What... where am I?" The alarmed Lawhinie looked around. ""How did I end up in this filthy garden?" She asked to herself. "And what time is it? I must return to..."

"Lawhinie! Can you hear me? Wake up, you are inside an illusion!"

The flame witch opened her eyes wide. "No…"

"Lawhinie?"

Gadget looked in the direction her scared sister was gazing at, and witnessed a slender black cat who leapt graciously out of the shadows. "Greetings Lawhinie" The cat hissed. "Long time we don't meet like this, right?"

The flaming white eyes of the cat gave Gadget full body tremors.

"M-master!" Lawhinie quickly bowed as low as she could, and Gadget did the same. "How... how did you called me to this plane again? You are supposed to be..."

"Sister, please!" Gadget warned in growing fear. However, it was obvious Lawhinie couldn't hear any word from her at all.

"Locked in mortal flesh?" Mephisto answered angrily, but his terrible gaze fell only on Lawhinie ignoring completely the good sister. "Doomed to live as a common cat for an entire life? Unable to summon you on the act, from whatever place in the world you happen to be?"

"Uh, yes?"

"Ah, it used to be like that, I used to be a cat, but not anymore! All thanks to you, my dear witch!"

"What? I did nothing to..."

"Oh, but you did! You just killed Enzo Moretti some hours ago! What a splendid success!"

"Wait, you wanted me to kill him?" Lawhinie was nonplussed. "You could have told me from the beginning! Instead, you just said he would help me gather an army to defeat these chipmunks! Look what happened to me by following that advice of yours!" Lawhinie pointed towards her scarred face.

Gadget gasped and covered her mouth in horror.

"Hah!" The demon laughed that off. "And that's why Enzo lowered his guard! You, my pretty mouse, became the perfect trojan horse. You had no idea of my plan, so he didn't suspect any hidden intentions. He just heard your pitiful tale of defeat and saw a chance to boast about his necromantic skills. However, I was confident that one would end up murdering the other, as soon as you sinners realized you shared a common acquaintance"

"Sabrina? You... you knew he was obsessed with my friend all time along and said nothing?"

"What?" Gadget blinked joining her sister in her outrage.

Mephisto just returned a cocky smile and leaned back, at ease and in control.

"Argh! If you had just told me! I could have gone there and kill him the first day we met instead of enduring that whole gross ordeal that almost cost me and Sabrina our lives!"

"'Gone there and kill him the first day', huh? I wonder if you had followed that order"

"W-what do you mean?"

"Lawhinie, Lawhinie! It's high time for both of us to lay our cards on this table. Enzo Moretti yelled out many interesting things about you while I cashed in his soul!" On that moment, the cat's eyes ignited in white flames and his fur crisped on edge. "Back stabbing witch! Want to break your contract with me, don't you? Oh yes, I know you are looking for that mage's grimoire, so you can finish the job she started! You traitor!"

As the cat adopted a threatening stance, the pale, busted witch stepped back and raised her paws in a last attempt to appease him. "Wait, wait!"

"Lawhinie, look out!" The illusionist yelled.

Mephisto jumped violently at his prey, pinning her down on the ground. Lawhinie's paws were crushed painfully under the weight of the feline's toes. The fang-filled muzzle came so close to the mouse's face that she looked away and let out a scream of terror, kicking around with despair.

"Lawhinie!" Gadget threw herself at the base of the cat's paw in an effort to release her sister from its grip, but it was useless. The brave mouse only passed through like a gust of wind, like if she wasn't there at all. "No!" After falling flat on the ground and roll over, she rose to her knees. "Master! I know you can hear me, please stop! Please forgive my sister!"

Mephisto stirred and growled in his place, as infernal leathery wings sprouted on his back. At the same time, black smoke began to steam out his body. "Ah yes, yes!" He exclaimed flapping the wings vigorously on top of the shocked Lawhinie, with Gadget just as horrified in her own parallel plane. "The spell is broken! I'm free! Hah hah hah! Hey Bethany, I hope you are suffering now in the other side! Your sacrifice was for naught!" Then, he turned again towards the blonde injured mouse below him. "Now, let's see if my flames have returned as well"

"No!" Both sisters yelled on top of their lungs, watching in horror as Mephisto opened his foul-smelling maw and got ready to burn Lawhinie's face. "Gggh... help! Someone help!"

On that moment, Mephisto stopped short, but kept his fulgurous eyes fixed on the witch. "You, asking for help? Pry tell me again, what was the wish I granted you?"

"I... I..." She mumbled while avoiding to glance at the murderous monster.

"Say it!" The winged cat demanded furious.

"Queen of the world!" She finally yelled. "But you tricked me! Months have passed and I rule nothing! That's why I betrayed you!" Her eyes were now brimming with tears of rage and frustration. "I want my soul back!"

Satisfied, Mephisto let her go. The witch immediately crawled a pair of strides back and covered her crushed paws under her arms. "Ugnhh" She flinched in pain.

"Oh god…" Gadget sighed in relief. "Lawhinie…"

"This world is too big, Lawhinie." Mephisto sat on his hind legs and spoke with a calmer voice, even though smoke kept steaming out his muzzle. "A mouse's soul is not enough to buy it whole. But you can't deny I gave you enough tools to raise yourself above animals and humans alike. Damn! You don't even need to lose time naming the spells you cast! And the hellfire burning inside you, fueled by your own wrath? Powerful enough to bring a city down to ashes, if you let it do it! However, my dear mouse... you lack patience. You want it all here and now. I've had many customers like you, too ambitious, too impatient for their own sake. All of them have ended in unmarked graves. Now, I have a proposal for you"

Swaying from side to side, enduring the pain, Lawhinie somehow managed to stand up. "Proposal? What proposal?"

Lawhinie blinked, and before her stood now a fat grey mouse clad in rich and exotic merchant clothes. Mephisto as she first had met him, months ago when she and Gadget signed their infernal contracts and their souls used as coin to pay one wish granted. It seemed so simple back then.

Gadget, as well, recognized at once the merchant of souls and his satchel full of unsigned contracts.

This merchant mouse stretched his arm towards Lawhinie, tilted the head and smiled generously. "Since you were a good witch and helped me break the spell I'm ready to give you another chance as my partner"

"Another chance, just like that? Why? What's the catch, Mephisto?"

"Ah yes, the catch" Mephisto drew his arm back and began to pace around the witch. "I really, really want to go back to Hell. Even while we speak, I can feel blots of white magic running down my body. It's disgusting! I want to feel again the warmth of Dis on my scales; to enjoy the wailing of the sinners we keep caged in there and..."

"Right! Get to the point!"

"Ahem! Turns out, I put too much hope on Enzo's soul. To my disappointment, and even though I squeezed it as much as I could, it wasn't tainted enough to both set me free from the lock and fill my pool of magic. Admittedly, is not a cheap trick to open a portal to hell. It seems I'll be forced now to twist the rules a bit and collect one of my contracts before its due time in order to add power to my spell"

"Wait, before the due time? So you mean, you want to kill one of your customers?"

Gadget gasped at such horrible idea. "He must be kidding!"

Mephisto crossed his arms and quickly explained. "Well, for a devil of wishes to kill his own customer in order to collect the soul sooner is against the rules, but if another person does it, then everything would remain legal. In short, yes, I want you to kill someone for me"

The evil witch frowned. "Who, exactly?"

"Oh witch, before I tell you, you must be aware that Bethany Lombardi and her party are the ones to blame for your actions from now on. They started this mess, two months ago, by targeting and killing my contracts all around the country. The fool thought she was doing a favor to the world. She only stopped when she realized that every black mage killed was a boost of power for me, their master. That's when the party of well-doers decided to go and confront me directly at the Parisian inquisition headquarters. By then, only three contracts remained alive. Enzo Moretti, you and your sister. Do you understand where I'm going with this?"

"Golly…"

"G-Gadget?"

"Exactly! Come on Lawhinie, hunt her down for me. Serve me well on this task and I shall reward you with treasures brought directly from my home in Dis! With these gifts you could become queen of the world in less than one year, I promise!"

Lawhinie scratched her head, visible disturbed. "W-Well, it's not that I haven't thought of include her in my revenge. I mean, I'm very upset with her right now for joining sides with that chipmunk, but to kill her for real, I..."

"Well, it's gone down to either you or her. And don't even think on challenge me again, I may not be able to summon the portal, but I'm strong enough to murder you like an insect! It just happens you are my favorite sinner around here, do you understand?"

"Give me... give me a moment to consider it, ok?"

Mephisto, the merchant, shrugged. "I don't see many options left for you, but ok. The sooner you convince yourself, the better"

"Sister!" The good witch ran to Lawhinie's side and confronted her, hoping against hope she could hear her voice this time. "Please, you can't seriously consider that offer! We… we are family!"

Gadget's heartfelt words had no apparent effect on the gloomy Lawhinie, deep in thoughts and pressing her lips together in a slight grimace. One could tell she was struggling through a storm of hurtful and conflicting emotions.

"My mother would say to go on with it..." The evil witch mumbled to herself, looking up at that blood red sunset sky.

"Excuse me?" Mephisto frowned.

"Lawhinie…"

Lawhinie turned back to Mephisto, her face now a mix of outrage and determination. "My mother would say to go on, to kill my own sister in exchange of power and riches. She would cross that line without any regrets or considerations. She did it once and killed my beloved father. But no! I'm not like her! I swore I would never be like her!" Then she called forth flames to her paws. "My sister, my family... leave them alone, demon!"

Gadget saw how her sister unleashed a colossal blast of fire towards Mephisto, so blinding, so powerful and so booming she couldn't help but to yell and cover herself, despite the fact the heat couldn't actually reach her. And yet she covered down, afraid of the raw and brutal magical power of her own sister. Lawhinie was indeed in a league of her own.

Because of that it was more incredible to behold the devil emerge from that explosion like some sort of draconic feline who rose to the air in a spiraling climb, completely unscathed and furious, his face twisted with outrage.

"You miserable mortal, insist on betray me!" Mephisto shouted with a grave voice. "So be it! I will kill you myself! I will kill your sister! Your souls will be tortured in hell for an eternity!"

Lawhinie stood on her place, and even managed a chuckle. "Yourself? Really? What about the rules? Now you want to blatantly break them twice? I bet whoever wrote them won't be very happy about it"

"Oh, I'll appease her with a gift. I intend to bring with me the soul of a suicide that is due from one hundred years ago: your ghost servant!"

"Never! I won't let you touch her!" The evil sister threw a fierce and booming lightning bolt at Mephisto. The winged cat withstood the attack with his paws. "Oh yes!" He licked his fangs. "I'll make sure she suffers the worse of punishments in the forest where she belongs! Maybe you will even be able to hear her from inside your cage!"

"No!" The witch exploded in rage. Suddenly, the whole place trembled victim of an earthquake apparently provoked by the witch's yell. Cracks broke through the floor and walls of the garden. Even further, reaching the sky that turned out to be just a sphere.

"Temper, temper!" Mephisto mocked her. "Look at what you've done, you broke this pocket plane. Our meeting is over, I guess!"

"We are not done here!"

"Wait for me in Paris, witch. Wait for the smell of sulfur!"

The ground around the twins collapsed into an emptiness which dragged them down into its depths. Gadget stretched her arm in an attempt to reach her sister, and just when it appeared she had managed to take hold of a shoulder, Lawhinie vanished in front of her eyes. "Lawhinie!" The good sister called, but to no avail.

Instead, a third voice answered. "Greetings, Gadget Hackwrench"

"M-master Mephisto?" The blonde mouse turned around, falling as she was, but only found blackness around her.

"I'm sorry you had to witness that unfortunate exchange" the devil lamented, and Gadget could swear a black silhouette followed her down the black emptiness. "You know your sister can be impulsive and inflexible sometimes"

"You… you knew I was there?"

"Of course! I called you both to that plane!" He explained. "But you, dear student of illusions, managed to break free sooner than I anticipated. You both witches have grown more experienced in these weeks I was out of reach. Two months ago I would even feel compelled to congratulate you"

"Two months ago you didn't plan to kill us!" She accused.

"Blame these heroes who raised their swords and spells against me!" Mephisto growled. "Condemned me to live in this filthy world, in this cage of flesh and bones and hunger and thirst! I want out, Gadget… I want to become a full devil again!"

"By killing the people who asked you for favors? You know there are consequences!"

"I don't care!" He roared. "I want my powers back and I will have them back! "Wait for the smell of sulfur, little witch!"

"Don't you dare hurt my sister!" The witch demanded defiantly. "Just get away from us!"

And with that, Gadget snapped her eyes open and found herself back in her room, covered in cold sweat. For the first time in what felt like hours she was able to take a gasp of air. "He is coming..." She said choking in her words. "Not a cat, but a dragon!"


	15. Chapter 15 - Revelations

**Chapter 15 – Revelations**

Rodent musketeers, a whole army of them, gathered at the entrance of the inquisitorial palace and waited for the signal to storm the place. The grounds around were silent, save for the faint whistling of the grass as it got perturbed by the nocturnal breeze. A patent nervousness permeated the atmosphere, with more than one hundred soldiers shifting uneasy on their feet, almost expecting monsters and witches to appear out of thin air. They had good reasons to believe that.

It all started as a string of rumors that reached the ears of the guards that were helping restore order in the bowels of the vast market palace of Les Halles. Whispers here and there about a gruesome battle that took place almost parallel to the blast that burned to crisps an entire neighborhood and sunk Paris into a night of chaos.

News about full-on clashes between rival rodent gangs were too common in a city which suffered from overpopulation, poverty and unrest. However, people began to pay closer attention when subsequent reports mentioned the involvement of those musketeers from Rouen that had passed by the market a pair of nights ago and the inquisitorial palace as battleground, out of all places.

Then came the account of a frightened family of bats who had chosen to live on the roof of the palace barely one day before. They talked of tremors that cracked open the earth and let the dead roam free; of walking corpses clashing against the famous battalion from Rouen. The family flew away horrified by the screams and the carnage that ensued. They didn't dare to look back or wait for the outcome of the battle.

The sudden whirlwind of fire that pierced the skies and sent a rain of ashes down on the market only helped to agitate the imagination of the masses a tenfold. By the time the much-blessed morning arrived again smallfolk all over the place were claiming that the devil itself had set himself free from the dungeons of the inquisitorial palace and killed everyone in its way to freedom, priests and musketeers alike.

The governing council of Les Halles quickly dispatched an expedition at the command of captain Pierre to investigate these claims and the fates of the inquisitors, the battalion stationed in the gardens of the palace and the visitors from Rouen.

It took Pierre's musketeers the whole day just to reach the palace's doors. The scribe turned to stone welcomed them just like he had welcome Patrick Lefevre and his soldiers before. The sight of him, pleading eyes and an arm reaching forward to the ether sent chills down the spines of even the bravest among the troops. The old captain himself couldn't help but to mutter a quick prayer under the breath the moment his gaze posed on the ill-fated mouse.

A pair of scouts came out of the dark tunnels shaking their heads and devoid of any glimpse of hope. "The place was razed, sir" One of them, a white mouse of short stature dressed in green, informed the captain loud enough to be heard by his anxious comrades. "There is nobody in there"

"Blood stains speak about a massacre that occurred at least two days ago, maybe three" The second scout - a dark brown chipmunk- added quite dreadfully.

Captain Pierre took his feathered hat off and combed his grey hair with the paw. "Dear lord… so the rumors were true. The inquisitorial palace was raided"

"However, there are no corpses"

Silence. "Not a single one?"

Both scouts negated with the heads. "Might be the human's fault. Gardeners must have cleaned up these grounds today"

Pierre let out a despondent sigh. "Sacre bleu, we arrived too late" Next, he faced his troops and called for their attention. "All right men, we are going to explore this whole area. Search for any signs of our comrades and the priests who lived here. Anything will do. Light the torches and spread out!"

"Yes, sir!" The musketeers answered and got to work. Only a few voiced out loud their concern for what or who they might find in these obscure fields. Those were promptly shushed by their officers.

A pair of prying eyes followed the actions of the distraught musketeers as they reluctantly. "They have no idea" The stalker -none other than Chip Maplewood - whispered treading stealthily from a dark spot to the next, always ready to avoid the dancing light of the torches. "No idea at all of the nightmare we faced yesterday. Ignorance is a bliss"

"Kill them" the otherworldly voice urged. "Kill them silently before they find about you and your friends"

Chip shook the thought out of his head. "Yeah, no. Stop saying that, Huggin"

"I'm Munnin, you idiot!"

The ranger simply shrugged. "Whatever"

"You did it on purpose, didn't you?"

"Honest mistake" Chip lied as he made his way back to the gates jumping from shadow to shadow. "Huggin's voice sounds more dignified to me than yours, were you trying to imitate him?"

"Dignified?"

"I know, right?" Chip's comment was given a seal of approval by the alluded raven. "Father blessed me with a voice worthy of a king"

"Nonsense!" An enraged Munnin cried out. "My voice is way more majestic than yours! Haven't you notice Father always listens to my reports first?"

"That's not true, you liar!"

Chip grinned mischievously at the turmoil he himself had created, even as the pitch-high cries of the quarreling ravens boomed in his mind like a dissonant concert of slurs and accusations.

Fortunately, their noise didn't last too long. By the time the ranger had reached the street the echoes had subsided and found his lucidity was actually getting back to normal. A sensation he hadn't experienced in many days. "Huh, what do you know, these pests are really gone"

Gone together with the purple longswords, as he realized soon after.

The joy didn't last long, as the whereabouts of his loved one took a firm seat in the forefront of his worries. Night had fallen more than one hour ago, but the blonde witch hadn't made her apparition yet. "Gadget, just where are you?" He wondered glancing at the night sky, where large pillows of clouds were gathering with the promise of releasing rain over the city.

The small ranger leaned against the wall troubled about what exactly do next - and also to regain his breath-. His first impulse was to slip back to the palace gardens and wait for Gadget there, lest she found herself surrounded by a whole army of musketeers upon her return. However, common sense kept advising against it. The witch was too smart to fall into such an obvious trap, and resourceful enough to solve such situation herself. Chip simply had to recall the way she dealt with the swarm of zombies the night before to stop worrying about his friend and instead fear for the musketeers the moment them and Gadget got into a battle. "She can be as scary as Lawhinie when the situation demands it"

A bat who descended swiftly and silently caught the ranger off-guard. "A-ha! There you are!"

"Foxglove!" The astounded ranger immediately straightened up, then offered the rogue bat an inquisitive glance. "Hey, didn't I told you guys to stay inside?"

"Oh, you actually did, Chipper" The nimble female conceded as she landed next to her friend. "But you didn't say for how long" She giggled.

"Like, all night long? It's not safe out here"

"Cap'n, please!" The bat mimicked Monterey Jack's accent with acceptable results. "Mah wings demand exercise! All these days in captivity did nothing but to numb my arm muscles. It was a miracle I was of any help during our battle yesterday!"

"I know, I know… Sorry, it's my fault for waiting until nightfall before rescuing you all"

"I'm not blaming you, silly! I believe everything that happened yesterday was written by fate in stone. We are still alive and that's' what matters, right?"

"Right"

"However, both Dale and I are worried about you"

"Me? Why?!"

"Because you insist on pushing yourself over the limit! I can easily tell by your volatile heartbeats, by the wariness in your voice, by these bags under your eyes… in short, you need to stop and rest or you'll break apart"

"Hey, I already slept twelve hours! That's kind of a record for me"

"Wow, twelve hours and you still look like one of the zombies we fought yesterday? You really have problems, Chipper!"

"Very funny…"

"Aaanyway" Foxglove gave a childish smile, pretty much like her boyfriend would. "The night is young, we are free, and there is so many delicious fruits hanging from those trees at the other side of the wall. I think I'll go serve myself a feast. Are you coming back to the hideout? Oh, before you ask, no… Gadget has not returned yet"

"I was afraid you'd say so…"

"Cheer up, you still have us to make you company! See you up there!" With a wink and a wave, the rogue bat left her friend's side and ascended again to the cold nocturnal sky. Faster than a breath, she got out of view, leaving the ranger alone in that barely lit street.

"Up there…" The ranger weighed on the next task at hand. A task the size of an elm tree which surpassed the height of the walls and overlooked the palace and its gardens. "Ugh! did it grow taller after I left?"

Almost at the top of the main trunk was an abandoned squirrel den, carved many years ago and conveniently hidden from sight by the thick summer foliage and the way the branches parted and entwined around its entrance. Dale Oakmont had found it by mere luck the day before in one of his escapades to gather food while waiting for night to come.

The ranger found his legs were wobbling by the time he stepped into the den. "So… tall" He said among gasping breaths as he fell to his knees out of exhaustion.

On a fleeting moment of clarity, glancing sideways, Chip realized Tammy hadn't scrambled yet to his aid. In fact, the girl wasn't even aware of his arrival, busy as she was arguing with Dale at the opposite corner of the place.

"For the hundredth time, no!" The squirrel voiced out quite exasperated, paws weaving off furiously the red-nosed chipmunk's rebuttals. "Dale, it's too dangerous! Also, it doesn't have anything to do with you"

"Nothing? What about you and Chip? You are my friends!"

"Well, what about Foxglove? Dale, you are practically a married chipmunk now. Start acting like one"

The minstrel took offense on that comment. "That's… that's a low blow, forcing me to choose between Chip and Foxy"

The alluded chipmunk heaved himself up and joined them before the exchange of words got out of hand. "Guys! What are you two fighting about?"

The voice made the two quarreling rodents stop on their tracks. "Oh, Chipper! I didn't see you coming!" The girl immediately went to his side, watching as he tried and failed to keep his balance. "What happened to you?"

"I'm fine, just a bit tired" He sent a weary smile on her direction, and promptly accepted her supporting shoulder.

Dale, on the other side, was still incensed. "Woah, Chip! What's with you always sneaking out from behind?"

"Force of habit, I guess" The ranger shrugged the accusation off. "Dammit guys, you two are at each other's throats! What did I miss?"

"Dale's fault!" Tammy declared as he helped the black-nosed chipmunk sit down on her own sleeping mat. "He insists in leaving with us tomorrow"

Chip faced his long-time friend eye to eye and found he was quite serious. "Dale, do you even know what are you getting into?"

"Yep, I do!" The bard sat down as well on the opposite side and crossed his arms defiantly. "Basically, to hunt down Gadget's cat master, Mephisto"

"Basically?" Tammy quipped as she gave the ranger a bowl with mashed seeds. "First off…"

"First off" The ranger stole her words. "We only have a vague idea where to find Mephisto. This hunt could take weeks, even months"

"Oh please, what about your raven friends? Won't they guide you in the right direction?"

Chip really wanted to say Huggin and Munnin weren't his friends, but he had no energies left to explain any more than the absolutely required. "That doesn't change the fact that a long travel awaits us. If Mephisto is on the move as well, we could end up catching up with him on the other side of the world, you know?"

"Allow me to remind you I'm a wandering mistrel!" Dale announced with pride. "Traveling far and wide is in my blood! You can even ask my mother"

Tammy offered him a condescending smile. "Yeah, right! Does your mom is aware his only child wants to go and chase a cat from hell? Heck, does Foxglove knows?"

Whatever bravado Dale had built to win the argument crumbled on that instant. His chin dropped to the chest at the mention of his wife-to-be's name. "I… we… Foxy mentioned she wants to stay here in Paris… get married in Notre Dame, move to an abandoned house with a nice view to turn it into a theater…"

"Sounds nice" The squirrel's animosity subdued as well upon the image of that same scenario for Chip and herself – without the theater at the end, of course-. "Let it to Foxy to plan a whole future for you in a whim. Gotta be quite a fool to turn down her offer, especially after everything you have endured together"

"Not only these past few days" Chip added. "But since the day Eaglewood found out you were courting his daughter. If anyone deserves a happy ending out of that, that's you, dummy"

"Listen to Chip" The cleric pleaded.

Both Chip and Tammy witnessed a dawning awareness behind Dale's eyes. First, he opened and closed the mouth twice, as if the right words to unleash against his companions escaped from his grasp. Next, he pressed the lips together in a slight grimace, almost acknowledging the truth behind Chip and Tammy's proposal. Finally, he took a deep breath, released it slowly and looked down defeated. "I want to make Foxy happy, but I also want to help you two… It sucks to choose one or another"

The bard fell heavily on his sleeping mat and rolled on his side, facing the walls and falling silent.

"Dale…" Chip put the bowl away and made a motion to stand up, but Tammy held him back by the shoulder.

Upon the chipmunk's questioning gaze, the squirrel simply shook her head. "You are all worn out. Just repose, ok? Our friend won't go anywhere tonight"

With a slow understanding nod, the ranger laid down and allowed himself to finally close his eyes. The blessing of sleep came soon, his last conscious thoughts dedicated not to the bard or the cleric, but to the missing blonde witch.

And the cleric watched over him with devotion, imagining many futures together for an entire hour or so while reading her grimoire, until she too succumbed to sleep and cuddled at the black-nosed chipmunk's side.

A pair of hours later the sound of a sweet feminine voice whispered right into the ranger's ear. "Chip?"

A whisper which caused the ranger to wake up with a start. "G-Gadget?"

He looked in all directions, but the blonde mouse wasn't nowhere around. In the room were only the sleeping forms of Tammy and Dale. The squirrel right next to him, stubbornly clung to his arm and breathing softly. The red-nosed chipmunk on the opposite corner, now resting on his back and muttering incoherent words under the breath.

The ranger had just eased up after concluding he had misheard Dale and his babbling when suddenly the voice called again. "Chip!"

There was no doubt this second time. Chip leapt up on his feet and ran to the den's entrance and only when he reached the threshold he realized he had pushed Tammy aside quite discourteously. He turned around both ashamed and frightened by the upcoming reprimand, only to find the squirrel girl still submerged in a deep sleep. "Sorry…" He whispered apologetically before venturing outside.

Another surprise was in store. At the junction of two entwined branches was the sleeping form of Foxglove, curled into a ball on a bed of leaves with leftovers of fruits all around her. She greeted the chipmunk with a loud snore.

"Foxy?" The chipmunk raised both brows and approached her with caution. That was literally the first time in all these years of knowing each other he had caught her sleeping during nighttime.

"Come, Chip!" Gadget's voice came in a more urgent tone, making Chip skip a beat out of shock.

"Gadget! Where are you?"

"The roof!"

"Roof?" Chip left Foxglove behind and quickly made his way to the tip of the branch, about two meters above from the ground, and glanced at the obscure and deserted street and the line of disparage buildings on the opposite side. "Which one?"

"Up here!"

Squinting his eyes, he finally spotted the witch: mounted on her broomstick and suspended in the air above a single-story, sloped-roof house right across the street. She kept on like that for some more seconds to make sure to be seen and then flew out of sight.

"Gadget, wait!"

"I'm the one waiting for you, Chip! Come!" Her voice, very much like a siren's call, made the ranger hurry and descend the elm tree without a second thought. Fast as lightning and ignoring the pain on his legs Chip crossed the street on all fours and didn't stop until he arrived at the door of the building, which turned out to be a shed attached to a second, bigger house behind it.

"Urgh, this is going to take some time" The chipmunk groaned and dug his nails on the wooden door. "Gadget, I'm having some troubles here"

On that moment the lone flying broomstick came down from the heavens to assist. "Use it!"

And Chip gladly took the offer. "Oh, much better!"

As soon as he gripped the handle the magical cleaning tool shot upwards to the skies, leaving below the entire neighborhood with the chipmunk holding for dear life with both paws. The broomstick made some furious spins before coming to a stall only to dive down in elaborate circles towards the flat roof of the main building, the ranger cursing and swearing the whole trip back. The landing was successful, even graceful, considering the wild ride. Chip climbed down and immediately threw himself to the ground, pale and disoriented as he was.

"Golly! Are you all right, Chip?"

The concerned tone of the girl he loved took Chip out of his dizziness. "Yes, yes!" He assured as he forced himself up. "You know I love to fly".

"I'm glad. Now that I think about it, perhaps I shouldn't have ordered the broomstick to do that last spiraling dive"

"Huh?"

Chip urged himself to regain the focus on the mouse in front of him, as he suddenly couldn't be certain who was he talking to. Gadget Hackwrench. Bright blue eyes, long and unkempt blonde hair, slender figure dressed in a black silk robe with purple sash and of course, a black silk cloak a few sizes too big. For a brief moment he played with the idea that he was facing the evil twin in disguise. A frightening idea that got scrapped the moment both locked eyes and studied each other. The resentment was there all over her countenance, but it lacked Lawhinie's wicked sneer.

"Are you…" He paused for a breath to collect himself. "Are you still cross at me?"

Gadget folded her arms across the chest and sent him a glassy stare. "My, oh my… where did you get that idea?"

A bait. Yes, she was still vexed. It was time to put in action a life-saving trick he had learned from Gerald Squirrel long time ago. Namely, to play the fool. "Just my sixth sense tingling" he composed himself and shrugged smugly.

A faint blush crept up the witch's face, and her expression changed from anger to shock to mild amusement. "That's, that's a female thing"

Chip's mouth twisted up into a smirk. There was still a chance to appease her. The second step was to subtly move to another topic. "Oh, sorry, I didn't know you women had exclusive rights"

"That's not the case" The witch adopted a lecturing, teacher-like, pose. "But intuition is by nature… No, wait a minute!" Realization hit like a brick and made her go into outraged mode again. "I'm not here to discuss random trivia!" Next, she stopped to rub her brows as if to ward off a headache. _"Focus, Gadget, focus! Be assertive, like your sister!"_

" _So, plan A was a bummer_ " Chip cleared his throat growing worried. " _What did Gerald used to do next? Oh, yes… To beg for mercy_ "

"Gadget" The ranger held his paws up. "Come on, let's go back to the hideout and talk things out. Everybody is sleeping so… Errr" A most dreadful thought flashed in his mind. "All of them are asleep! Did you, did you use magic on them?"

The witch's posture became rigid, defensive even. "I can only take the blame for Tammy and Foxglove's current condition. There was no point in putting a spell on Dale"

"B-but, why would you do that?"

Gadget blew out a loud breath. "Because I wanted you to come alone, up here where nobody would disturb us"

The way the witch confessed without an ounce of regret sent goosebumps down the ranger's skin. "What ever happened to you, Gadget? Is Lawhinie… is she…"

Such honest concern caused the witch's resolve to falter again. "My sister is fine, I think" She said glancing away at the skies for a brief second. "Alive, at least"

An uneasy silence followed, in which both studied each other cautiously. The witch exuded an uncomfortable aura of hostility, no doubt about that. Chip wished – and implored from the bottom of his heart – this meeting didn't end in a duel like it happened with Tammy earlier that day.

Gadget, on the other side, could feel something was amiss. Something beyond the chipmunk's tattered shirt which together with his slumped shoulders and bags under the eyes gave away hints of fatigue. No, what was missing were the feathers. "Where are these loud, rude ravens? She finally inquired. "Where are your blades?"

"Oh, yes, they…" A grin of unadulterated pride crept up Chip's muzzle. "They took some time off me. Something about my brand of humor didn't quite appeal to them, sadly"

"But… you expect them to come back to possess you, don't you?"

"Eventually" He admitted. "But not in the way you put it"

"Oh, for God's sake, Chip!" The witch shot an accusing look at her companion.

"What's the problem?"

And then she exploded. "What's the problem? What about the fact that you were fool enough to sign a contract with a bloodthirsty god? Didn't you learn anything from my own tragedy? Weren't you listening?"

"You know I did, Gadget! He defended himself, taken aback by the mouse's sudden steely gaze. "Every word of your plea for help!"

"Plea for help?" The witch was now not only resentful, but outright furious. "I never asked for help! Contrary to what my sister and you believe, I knew exactly how everything would end the moment I signed my contract"

"No, Gadget, I refuse to believe it! I won't believe you aren't at least a bit afraid of spending an eternity of punishment in Hell!"

"I…" The mouse's incensed response never came. Bit by bit the scowl on her face softened. "I wasn't afraid…" Her shoulders slumped. "Back then, when Mephisto presented his offer my life as an orphan was dull and pitiful. I didn't have the thirst for notoriety and revenge Lawhinie had, or the greed that sent my parents to their deaths. I was simply the daughter of an infamous alchemist who used to read the same old books by day and go to bed with hunger by night. No, I wasn't afraid to suffer in hell in exchange for a brighter and meaningful life. Fear came later… After I met you, Chip Maplewood"

"What do you mean?"

The witch bit her lips. The time to speak the untarnished truth had finally come. "The night I met you, right after I told you about my fate and you bolted off to meet the cloaked wanderer, I was assaulted by a vision from the future. Just one of the perks of becoming a clairvoyant, you know? It was so revealing, so overwhelming, that it shattered me to the core and I was unable to follow after you and stop your nonsensical plan"

"W-what did you see?"

On that moment Gadget lifted her face and met again the dark eyes of Chip. The flames of hate had vanished, replaced now by flickers of remorse. "I saw a chain of lifetimes" She declared, and with a weave of her paw she shared the memories with the chipmunk through vivid, lifelike illusions.

Scenes of different times and places came into view one after another, but all of them had one constant: Gadget and Chip together as a couple. "I learned that, one way or another, we are fated to find each other during each of our lifetimes" She explained as the time frame advanced to more recent centuries. "One way or another, no matter the distance or the hardships that fall upon us. You and me are bound to find each other and…" Here she gulped down and her voice became a whisper. "… and be happy together"

The scenes came to a halt and faded out. Silence and a cold breeze enveloped the two rodents on that lonely rooftop. A silence that lasted for many heartbeats until Gadget found the courage to ask. "Tell me, how do you feel after learning my secret?"

"How do I feel, you ask?" He folded the arms defiantly. "Hmpf! As if I needed fate as an excuse to fall in love with you! No, what I feel for you doesn't come from a rule written thousands of years ago. To love you, to adore you, it's my own private choice!"

To say that Gadget blushed red as a tomato was an understatement. The last drops of animosity towards the black-nosed chipmunk evaporated right then and right there, replaced by throbbing feelings of guilt and failure.

Upon the blonde mouse's wide-open eyes and loss for words, it was the turn for Chip to voice out the same question. "How do you feel after learning my secret?"

For the chipmunk's complete dismay, his beloved mouse dropped her shoulders and her expression turned into one of complete sadness. "You want to know if I feel the same for you? Well, I do. I honestly and wholeheartedly do. I love you, Chip. That's why this last vision hurts me so much"

Another scene unfolded in front of the ranger, this one depicting some sort of living room in the depths of an oak tree. Half of the objects in that room were totally alien to him, with most of the space in that room occupied by a huge black mirror of sorts and a long-cushioned seat which was placed against it. There was light, much more radiant and blinding than any torch, coming from a small crystal lamp hanging from the ceiling. Also, Dale and Foxglove were there, together with Zipper and Monterey Jack. Their clothes looked foreign and exotic, washed in colors the ranger couldn't even dream of.

Tammy and he himself came into view soon after: The chipmunk caressing her long red hair tenderly, the squirrel running a paw down his chest in response and finally, both of them were seen sharing a passionate kiss.

A flush crept up the ranger's cheeks upon being witness of such vibrant display of affection. "That's not… Tammy and I…" He stammered upon the downcast look of Gadget.

With a snap of fingers, the vision faded to nothingness, and the witch couldn't have done it sooner enough. "I must say, you make a good couple" She admitted albeit with a defeated expression. "She will take care of you from now on"

"From now on? So, what you mean is…"

"Just like I told you on that night at the castle, this is my last life in Earth" Here the mouse broke into tears, all pretense of toughness thrown to the gutter. "Witches don't come back to Earth after they die. Oh god, If only… if only I had met you sooner!"

The ranger ran and pulled her into a hug, where he rocked her gently side to side and caressed the long blonde hair softly up and down, exactly like he had done to Tammy in that vision. In response Gadget wrapped her arms tighter around his waist and buried her head against his shoulder. "I'm sorry…" She said. "I really screwed it up"

"It's not too late to fix it" Chip whispered quietly as he took in the warmth of his partner and inwardly renewed the oath to protect her from harm. "I'll take Mephisto down and set you free" He declared with conviction born out of love rather than duty.

"Please don't say that"

"I mean it, though"

The witch locked eyes with him. "No Chip, you don't understand. If you challenge my master, you will die!"

"Hey hey, rest easy!" He said in an effort to comfort her. "I've battled against cats before. Back in Saint Pierre, there was a time…"

"No!" She insisted raising her tone. "Mephisto is not a cat! Not anymore, look for yourself!"

An unwelcomed sensation struck the ranger out of nowhere. it started as small goosebumps, followed by a feeling of being watched intently. This apprehension soon grew into anxiousness - and an urgency to run away – but as soon as he made a motion to break the hug the witch tightened his grip on him and pulled him close again. "Gadget" He asked growing alarmed. "What are you…"

The words died in his throat the moment he witnessed a jet-black cat with flaming white eyes leaping out graciously from the darkness behind the witch. "M-Mephisto!?"

And at last, Gadget allowed him to break free and step a pair of strides back. By then the feline had taken a place at the left of the witch where he crouched and stared at Chip with the wicked smile of a predator ready to pounce at its prey.

"Gadget, get away from him!" The ranger ordered as he got into a defensive – yet unarmed – stance.

But the witch didn't move a single step. In fact, she stood next to the devil and tilted her head quizzically at the ranger. "Wait… the fact that you aren't overwhelmed by terror is remarkable and awe-inspiring. Have you… Have you met my master before?"

"Once, for a brief moment. Reflected on a magical mirror"" He answered while praying that the feline of blazing eyes in front of him was but an illusion. The fact that Mephisto hadn't said anything at all, not even a single meow, hinted as much. Just Gadget messing with reality again.

"Wait, are you talking about the one at the inquisitors' palace?" The witch grimaced at an unpleasant memory. "I better go and destroy it before it falls in the wrong paws… again"

"That mirror destroyed itself soon after" He explained while forcing himself to stare up at the lifelike illusion. "One hundred shards or more"

Gadget let out a sigh of relief. "Good, one less evil artifact in the world. Back then I couldn't understand why my master would give the inquisitors such a powerful tool to spy on people. Yesterday I figured it all up…" She looked up at the looming black cat and grew enraged at him. "He wanted his customers to be hunted down, he never intended to honor his word or the contracts! That conniving murderer!"

A hundred crystal swords manifested out of thin air and struck the cat down in a single flashing second. The devil let out high-pitched growls of pain as his body crumbled down next to the witch and finally vanished out into nonexistence.

Gadget plumped down to her knees and looked at Chip hopelessly. "Mephisto wants to kill me" She sobbed. "He wants to kill my sister… he will kill you if you get in his way"

"Not if I kill him first!" The dauntless ranger knelt in front of his beloved witch and took her paws on his. "I'll do it to save you, Gadget! I swear I will!"

But the mouse simply negated with a slow shake of the head. "You cannot win…"

"Why don't you believe me?"

Chip waited for her to answer, but instead, her only response was a downward shift of her gaze.

A powerful gust of wind came from above and threw the chipmunk off-balance. "What the…" He had started to say, when the shadow of a huge winged beast passed over his head at a meteoric speed. The ranger's first thought and fear was they had been spotted by an owl or nighthawk. However, what Chip found the moment he dared to look up at the night sky was not a bird but a monster out of a feverish nightmare.

Huge leathery wings like those of a bat extended out of Mephisto's feline body right over the shoulders, with a pair of horns wickedly protruding behind the ears. Fur and scales mixed chaotically across the spine and all the way to the tip of the long tail. The four paws had been replaced into sharp long claws that could tear a chipmunk in pieces in a single strike. Not only the eyes were ablaze, now fire came out from the crevices between the teeth.

Chip Maplewood, very much used to the sight of otherworldly beings by that point, found that he couldn't breathe. His heart felt stuck in his throat, pounding, threatening to burst out. "Please…" He finally managed to whisper. "Please tell me this only an illusion"

Gadget looked up at him and reached for his paw to squeeze if only to prevent the ranger from fainting. "Not a mere illusion, no. Take it as a forewarning. If you insist on saving me, this is what you'll find at the end of the road: Mephisto the dragon!"

The blonde witch then proceeded to explain the best she could the chain of events that ended up conjuring that abomination. "… and he is now in his way to hunt me and Lawhinie down. 'Wait for the smell of sulfur' he said. I don't know how much time I have left"

The unholy mirage dived and landed right in front of the duo, exhaling fire and smoke all the way down. It stared Chip down as the mouth stretched in a hideous smile and the eyes burned with nothing but malice. The chipmunk's body felt numb, every limb heavy with lead, all unable to move at will. The only thing that prevented him to lose his sanity was the little fact there was no smell at all coming off from this monster, much less the rotten-like hint of sulfur as his friend had stated. Thus, he concluded, that dragon cat wasn't really there – couldn't be really there-.

Unable to watch Chip shiver in terror anymore, Gadget vanished the illusion for good. The two companions were enveloped again by the lights of the city and a persistent breeze that smelled to rain. Drained as they were after sharing these revelations with each other, they embraced each other again and together fell to their knees. Meanwhile, the world around them seemed devoid of color, devoid of soul, devoid of hope.

The rasping of Chip's breath filled the atmosphere for several passing seconds, while it forced it back into a steady rhythm. "How do I… how do I kill that thing?" He wondered inwardly while running a paw down his face and muzzle. "Odin, tell me how to kill that thing!"

"I'm sorry you I had to show him to you, Chip" The witch begged for pardon. "But I hope now you understand my wretched situation better" The witch said wiping a tear off. "I came here to say mend things over and say goodbye only to you. I must go now, It's not safe for you to have me around"

Just as she made a motion to lift herself up, the ranger held her by the wrists and pulled her up into a hug again. "No, you won't go anywhere" Chip declared much to Gadget's surprise. "Not without me"

Gadget faced the chipmunk up with an annoyed scowl. "Y-You really are a stubborn…"

"We are soulmates, remember? And If this is really our last life together, then…" He paused for a second in order to regain the courage. ""Then I want to be at your side until our last breath!"

Here the witch bit her lips, moved by these kind words. "Chip… you want to die with me? That's the most romantic thing someone has said to me, in a morbid Shakespearean way"

"We won't die" Chip assured holding her closer against him. "Think about this… If Mephisto needs you and your sister that badly, it means he is not invincible yet. So, as long as I've got these cursed swords with me, I have a chance to defeat him"

"B-but… you don't have the swords" She blinked confused.

"Oh, they will come back to me sooner than later" The ranger offered the witch his trademark mischievous glint. "Cannot live without me, those two"

For the first time in many days, the witch allowed herself to let out a chuckle. "Yeah, because you are quite the charmer, right? There is simply no way to escape from you" She blushed and rested her head on the Chipmunk's chest. "All right, mister ranger… Let's fight for our future together"

"There is three of us" He corrected. "You, me and Tammy"

"Huh, what?" Gadget pushed his beloved away so violently it almost made him fall on his rear. "What does Tammy have to do with this?" She asked with a sour expression as she jumped up straight.

"Actually…" The ranger mumbled while scolding himself for being so tactless. "We had a talk and she made clear she wants to go and avenge the death of her parents"

"Really?" The witch crossed her arms and shot him a glare. "And you of course convinced her that revenge won't bring her parents back and that challenging a devil cat is certain death, correct? Because that's what any responsible adult and leader figure would do"

"Yeah, well… She had too many convincing counter-arguments under the sleeve" He stood up and rubbed his right arm on the spot where a sword cut should be. Alas, there was nothing left to show now, as the raging cleric had covered the evidence quite expertly with healing spells. "But on the other side" He held up both paws defensively, almost expecting to deflect an incoming blow. "Wouldn't a cleric be a good addition to a devil-hunting party like ours"

"Tammy is a teenager"

"I know! But she is also quite the fiery…"

"Golly, Chip! I can't believe you!" The outraged witch balled her fists. "I doubt my master will show any mercy to the daughter of Bethany Lombardi! Have you thought of that?"

An unnatural cold chill unexpectedly ran down the mouse's spine all the way to the tip of the tail; what was left of her lecture against Chip dissipated in a haze. By reflex she clutched her chest, shuffled back one step and gazed up to the sky as her paw rushed to cover the mouth. "Oh, no!"

"Hey, are you all right?" The ranger started to ask, only for his mouth to fall open at the sight of another witch falling down to earth: Lawhinie Hackwrech.

The evil witch miraculously managed to aim for the same roof the couple was standing on, despite the erratic way she was losing altitude. The landing, however, was a disaster. Upon impact with the ground the broomstick got smashed into pieces and Lawhinie was forced to fall on her shoulder and roll over many steps forward to avoid injuries, finally ending up almost at the feet of her twin sister.

As if on cue, the clouds made way just enough for the light of the moon to fall on her so everybody around could be witness of her tragedy: bruises and scratches all over her body, her expensive dress in tatters, the long blonde hair a mess, a nasty scar peeking out her cleavage.

"Sister… help me…" Lawhinie begged on her knees.

And the way Gadget immediately ran and offered her a helping paw gave Chip ominous, dreadful thoughts.


	16. Chapter 16 - A place to die

**Chapter 16 – A place to die**

The crowd of smallfolk which gathered around the stage on that bright sunny day cheered excited the moment Dale Oakmont struck a chord of his legendary lute. The excitement turned into trepidation as the bard opened his mouth and started signing the sacred hymn of the Frankish wilds. Both nobles and peasants joined the chipmunk's silk voice and all together made the chorus reach the crystal blue skies.

Once the song came to an end, the bard saluted the audience with a courteous and elaborated bow and got ready to play the encore. The multitude, meanwhile, kept calling his name over and over totally enraptured by the chipmunk's charisma. "Dale, Dale, Dale!"

"Dale? Dale?"

That last inquiring voice, oddly familiar, eclipsed the whirlwind of ovations and applauses and made the red-nosed chipmunk to stagger and drop to his knees unceremoniously.

"Goddamit Dale!" The familiar voice grew frustrated.

"Chip, language!" A female voice reproached.

"Foxy?" The realization that followed provoked an earthquake that collapsed the sun-bathed valley around the chipmunk; the pleasant dream was replaced in a blink and a breath with the cold reality of the half-lit den, the sound of rain and the stern face of Chip Maplewood looking back at him disapprovingly.

"Chip? It's too early" The red-nosed chipmunk whined and pushed his friend to one side, demanding some personal space. "Leave me alone until breakfast" he yawned.

"Dale, snap out of it, will you?" The ranger demanded as he grabbed his friend by the wrists and forced him to stand up.

Foxglove quickly joined and prevented her boyfriend from falling again. "Cutie please" She whispered with a cautious tone. "Gadget is back and brought…"

Dale followed the anxious gaze of his girlfriend across the half-lit room, all the way to the entrance door, where a pair of slightly drenched female mice cut themselves against distant flashes of lightning. A thunder – perhaps real, perhaps imaginary- roared in his ears the moment he realized Lawhinie Hackwrench was one of these midnight visitors.

"Oh boy, oh god, oh boy!" The bard trembled from head to toes at the sight of the arsonist twin. "W-what is she doing here?"

"That's what I want to know!" Tammy, already armed with her father's sword and standing her ground at the opposite corner of the room, sent a glare from Lawhinie to Gadget to Chip and back. "Why did you bring that evil witch here?"

"Tammy, put down that sword" Chip pleaded.

"Never! She tried to kill you before, remember!?"

Gadget braced herself for an impending brawl between the feisty cleric and the feisty witch; Dale and Foxglove took preemptive steps back, trapped as they were between both parties.

Then, for everybody's surprise, the fearsome Lawhinie crossed her arms, looked away and let out an annoyed sigh. "Oh, hide your claws, girl" Then she again met the gaze of the squirrel with a self-righteous smile. "That's not way to welcome your new comrade"

"C-Comrade?"

"Absolutely!"

The cleric stood there agape and incredulous, waiting – pleading - for the punchline of that unfunny joke. The ranger, however, approached her dead serious and took hold of her extended arms. A bad omen of things to come.

"Tammy" He started. "Lawhinie will join Gadget, you and me in our travel"

Indignation, followed by a sting of jealousy, hit her like a ton of bricks. Just when she had gotten used to the idea of traveling with her chipmunk's other love interest it turned out these two decided to let the identical twin to tag along for the ride. In the eyes of the possessive squirrel this hunting party was becoming more and more like a travelling harem with Chip at the center of it.

"Oh no… Oh no, no, no!" Tammy shook her head furiously as she freed herself from the chipmunk's grip. "We don't need her!" She ranted and raved. "We don't need Gadget either! We can take that cat down with your blades and my sword. Never forget that these black witches are our enemy's servants!"

"Not anymore" Gadget muttered sheepishly.

Lawhinie, on the other hand, could barely hide her exasperation. "Please! Someone tell this irksome brat the news so she can shut the hell up"

"Irksome brat? How dare you!"

"What news?" Both Dale and Foxy asked in unison.

Chip, who was struggling to keep Tammy from pouncing at the blonde twins, gave Gadget a nod. The good witch cleared her throat and proceeded to explain to her friends the predicament she and her sister had been sucked into. And for Chip's relief, she wisely omitted the part regarding his and the witch's entwined fate and the declaration of mutual love that followed; there was no need for the others to know about it yet.

As if the description of Mephisto wasn't enough to convince her listeners, Gadget made use of her black magic to fill their eyes with the life-like illusion of the winged cat of blazing eyes and razor-sharp claws, provoking a heap of reactions out of them all. While Chip and Lawhinie simply stared back defiantly at the phantasm, Foxglove and Dale couldn't help but scream in horror and take refuge in each other's arms.

Upon first sight Tammy endured stoically the whole show, but as the ranger discovered in a closer inspection the girl was so pale her fur had turned white. Only after Chip wrapped his arms around and comforted her was the squirrel able to utter three simple words: "Not… a cat"

"I know" Chip whispered back while holding her in a sheltering embrace.

"Wait, wait!" She suddenly perked up and meet the chipmunk's eyes. "What if, what if that horrible monster is just an invention created by Gadget? She might be fooling you, Chipper! She might be fooling all of us!"

Chip glanced back at Gadget with hesitation clouding his face. "What? No, of course not!"

Dale and Foxglove joined the questioning gazes. Needless to say, every one of them would rather cling to that idea rather than accepting such an infernal being was loose somewhere in their world.

The way Chip was swayed so easily by Tammy broke Gadget's heart in pieces. "Don't you trust me?" She grieved. "I would never lie to you!" her words directed more to the ranger than to the people around.

"Oh please!" The evil twin rolled her eyes. "Do you think I would be here asking *you* for help if that devil was still a simple alley cat? Make no mistake, peasants: Mephisto is as real as me, flesh and bones and wings and scales, and is coming to hunt us all down"

"To hunt you down" Tammy corrected acidly.

"To hunt me down" Chip added letting his companion go. "Tammy, listen" He said in a most serious note. "This situation is getting too dangerous. It's time for you to go back home. Think about Bink!"

"But, what about you?" The girl whimpered. "That beast will burn you to crisps the moment you face him!"

The ranger caressed her face tenderly. "Maybe it will, maybe not. It doesn't matter, I have oaths to keep. For me there is no other choice but to take that beast on"

"Chipper... please…"

"The same goes for you, Dale" He addressed the still traumatized bard. "Go home, I don't want your tale to end with an 'And then I got eaten by a devil' epilogue"

"Hey, don't tell me what to do! I'm coming with you!"

"Cutie, I-I think we should…"

"That monster doesn't scare me a bit, no sir!" The red-nosed chipmunk insisted.

"M-me neither!" Tammy joined again the argument, emboldened by the bard's remark. "My parents fought that monster once and almost defeated him! I swear I'll finish what they started!"

Chip threw his paws up in frustration. "For God's sake, guys! I don't want you to die!"

Tammy understandably got upset at such claim. "We don't want you to die either, Chip!" She countered, reverting to his real name in her zeal. "Don't push me away! I won't let you go there alone!"

Gadget, however, shared the dark-nosed chipmunk's sentiment. "I beg you, listen to Chip! He only wants to protect you! Do you really want to challenge a devil from hell?"

Suddenly Lawhinie intervened. "Now, now… wait a minute, sister. While it's true that these people don't look too capable at first sight, I clearly remember they managed to stand their ground against me the night we all met" Her lips curled into a up into a fake smile. "They even brought me to heels. Isn't that remarkable?"

"I guess but…"

"All I'm saying these Normans are strong and full of surprises. They want to help Chip the same way Chip wants to help us. We would be such hypocrites if we turn them away, don't you think so?"

"Uh…"

The scarred witch leaned on the ranger's shoulder and whispered to his ear. "Come on, let them join the party. You know we are in need of trustworthy allies" Then she raised her voice up a notch. "Besides, they will follow us with or without your permission, am I right?"

"Hell yeah I will!" Tammy stated clasping the tilt of her sword tightly. "And he knows that!"

And the bard mirrored the sentiment. "Yeah, he knows!"

Chip took a deep and reluctant breath in. "All right, all right! You can come with us"

Lawhinie gave him a pat on the back. "Oh, you made the right decision, boss! I'm sure we'll get along just swimmingly" The evil twin celebrated. Gadget eyed her in a mix of curiosity and confusion.

Foxglove, on the other side, was so shaken she slipped down the wooden wall. "I think I need to sit down for a while" Then she gazed up to the witches, to Gadget in particular. "How did this happen?" She quivered. "How did your master turn into that nightmarish monster? Wasn't he supposed to be under a spell or something?"

"He was, indeed" Lawhinie's expression darkened. "Until he tricked me into meeting and killing a deranged and repulsive necromancer he once made a deal with: Enzo Moretti"

The whole group gasped in shock at the revelation, but only Chip was able to recognize that name from one of the wanted posters back at the inquisition palace. "The inquisitors were looking for him, as well" He muttered pensive.

"Yeah well, that snitch decided to strike first. He assaulted the palace and murdered every single inquisitor, only to turn them into mindless zombies afterwards. I witnessed the whole spectacle" She smiled wolfishly. "Can't say they didn't deserve it, though. Bastards all of them"

"What about Finn?" Gadget asked in a low voice. "You killed him, didn't you?"

Lawhinie's features softened as she glanced back at her. For a moment something akin to sorrow flashed in her dee blue eyes. "He's beyond any evil now".

"Then, If I understand correctly" Tammy crossed her arms defiantly. "That necromancer signed a contract with Mephisto time ago. When you killed him, his soul increased the devil's powers and he was able to break my mother's binding spell. Is that what you try to say?"

"Hey, you got it right! What a smart girl you turned out to be!"

"I've been studying the grimoire you tried to steal from us"

"Ah yes, the grimoire of the archmage. Have you read it all? Is there really a way to kill my master?"

The cleric nodded and grinned with self-righteous pride. "I've memorized every spell my mother wrote, including those she used in her last battle months ago"

"Wait a minute!" Dale scratched his head. "The zombie captain musketeer kept babbling about his master over and over. Does this mean Enzo Moretti was the wizard controlling the army of zombies we battled against two nights ago?"

"Really?" The evil witch cocked an eyebrow the bard's way. "Now that you mention it, Enzo kept getting distracted from time to time during our fight at the workshop. Perhaps you guys were the reason behind it? Since you were cutting his minions down at the same time I was busy cutting him?"

"The zombies we met also behaved erratically" Chip recalled. "That would mean our battle took place at the same time as yours"

Gadget opened the eyes wide. "We ended up helping each other!"

Armed with that knowledge, the evil witch sent Tammy a boastful smile. "See, girl? We already worked together as a team once! We can do it again"

"As long as you don't send fireballs our way" Tammy quipped, and the witch answered her remark with a mischievous grin that didn't exactly put the squirrel's mind at ease.

"So, what's next?" Foxglove asked with fear, curled as she was in the corner of the room. "Is your master coming to Paris? Is he already here?" She shivered and covered her face with the wings. "Will he fall upon me if I dare to go fly outside?"

Dale and Tammy quickly went to comfort their companion while Gadget and Lawhinie made some mental calculations. "I don't think he is already here" The evil twin started. "I would feel it in my gut" She then turned to the frightened bat. "The smell of sulfur will be his herald, he said"

Gadget wasn't that reassuring. "However, and assuming he broke free the same moment the necromancer died and is traveling by air from Cologne like a hawk would, with no need to rest..."

"That was more than twenty-four hours ago" Chip muttered with dread.

"Golly! He might arrive at Paris any minute now" The good witch concluded growing tense, and her companions followed suit. "We are out of time!"

"So that monster could actually be outside?" Dale shivered like a leaf as she gazed at the darkness outside. "What are we going to do!?" He sprung up and tugged at his friend's shirt. "It's too soon! What are we going to do!"

"Hey, hey, careful with my clothes!"

The bat lifted her head slightly out her self-made cocoon. "Doesn't… Doesn't Mephisto sleep by day like you do?"

"Sleep?" The two witches looked at each other nonplussed. "Now, that's a good question" Gadget conceded. "Back then, he would appear before us only during the witching hour"

"Yeah, but when he got trapped into a mortal body and moved to Cologne with us he used to roam around the city in plain daylight"

"How do you know that?" Gadget's ears perked up.

"Sabrina and others of her kin informed me that"

"Oh, I see" The good witch nodded knowingly, then fell silent and pensive again, leaving Chip and the others speculating about who exactly Sabrina was. "Foxglove might be correct" She then conjectured. "If Mephisto is back to his former self he must be suffering now from the same flaws we have as hell-tainted creatures. Namely, our weakness against sunlight that forces us to fall into a deep slumber every day. Since we cannot feel his presence yet and we are close to daybreak I'd say we are safe here, at least until tomorrow night""

Lawhinie's eyes glowed with elation. "Hah! For once that annoying trait works on our favor!"

The group finally was able to release all the accumulated tension. "Let's make good use of that small edge, then" Tammy commented as she left herself fall against the wall, relieved as she was to have another day to practice the offensive and defensive spells her mother favored so much, and put an end to the existence of that vile monster. Oh, how she wanted to take Chip home and together forget about witches, devils, old gods and violence. To make him forget about Gadget. "Perhaps there is a memory-erasing spell somewhere in the grimoire?" The cleric thought selfishly as she gazed sideways at her blonde 'hell-tainted' rival.

"Another day to do what?" Foxglove insisted. "Are we really going to charge at him the moment he appears before us?"

The mood of the party darkened again. The ugly truth was that, even with white magic on their side, their chance of success and survival was still slim. It didn't matter how confident the young cleric was of her abilities, everyone knew that the previous owner of the grimoire, Bethany Lombardi, together with her party of pirates had challenged that devil with swords and spells and failed. Many minutes passed by, with the sounds of rain and distant thunders enveloping the dour scene.

At the end, it was Chip who found a light in that darkness. "There is another weakness" he stated wistfully. "The night I met Gadget she was injured. Her foot was burnt and there were ashes along her footprints" He then looked back at the shy mouse. "How did it happen? I remember you said back then you were trying to do… an experiment?"

"In fact, I tried to break into the small shrine of the graveyard" The witch confessed dispirited. "The holy aura it emanated burned me the moment I stepped inside. In hindsight, I should have expected that outcome"

"That's it!" The ranger brightened up. "Mephisto is bound to suffer the same!"

Lawhinie nodded slowly. "Go on, handsome"

"Now is him who is coming to us, not the other way around! We can make our stand in any holy ground of this city! I propose we take him on in Notre Dame itself!"

"Not there!" The evil witch frowned. "I can't even get twenty meters close to that place without feeling steam coming out from my skin. Gadget and I would burst out in flames if we hide there, you insensate!"

"Sorry, I got carried away. Perhaps another smaller church will do the trick?"

"Actually, I think I know the perfect place. Are you familiar with the cemetery of Les Innocents?"

Everyone around Lawhinie shook their heads.

"Well, it's quite a sight! Tombs and crypts and mass graves all over the place" She explained with an uncomfortable delight, as if the old graveyard were her most favorite place in the world. "There is a small church built there, the church of the holy innocents. I flew around the building twice or thrice, almost made it to its doors before the pain forced me to turn tail and leave. If we were to battle Mephisto around there…"

Tammy beamed a smile of renewed hope. "We can actually win? Is that what you say?"

"My dear master should suffer the effects far worse than we would, that's for certain!"

"I'm in, then!" The squirrel lifted her paw up enthusiastically, then lowered it ashamed. "Unless Chipper has a better plan, I mean"

The ranger, in turn, glanced at the blonde witch looking for her approval.

"There is really no other choice, is it?" Gadget rubbed her forearm and looked away.

"There is always another choice" The chipmunk assured her as it was clear his friend wasn't keen to the idea of getting close to a church any time soon, not after her previous experience.

"No, not for us" She negated with the head. "There is simply not enough time. Besides, in that way you - the four of you - will be protected by the aura of the church if the battle goes south. By that logic, I support Lawhinie's idea as well" She lifted her paw slowly.

"Gadget…"

"Please, sister! Think positive, you'll have this hunk of a chipmunk by your side all the time" The evil witch grabbed Chip by the shoulder and sent a fairly indecent stare on his way. "You will take care of my pretty sister with those talking swords she told me about, correct?"

"O-of course" The blushed ranger stammered. "She knows I will"

"Good, because I might need some protection too" She grinned mischievously as she licked her lips. "Do you think yourself capable enough to handle both of us?"

"L-Lawhinie!" Gadget shouted with a visible flush on her cheeks. "He is not that kind of male!"

"Stop it! Chipper isn't building a harem!" A most offended Tammy stomped her feet.

"Harem?" Both Chip and Gadget exclaimed in unison.

"I'm just joking!" The witch rolled her eyes and pushed the embarrassed Chipmunk away like an used toy. "I love to tease my friends, that's just the way I am. You tell them, sister!"

"Oh! Um, I couldn't… I couldn't say" She fiddled with the cloak sleeves as she struggled to say the right words. "Do you have any more friends, besides me and Sabrina?"

"Now I have!" She beamed, albeit with that trademark sinister smile. "Just as we agreed, I'm leaving the past to die, sister. Since we are all now in the same boat, I consider everyone gathered here my friends. The chipmunks, the bat, the squirrel and… hey, wait a minute, where are the fat mouse and his fly pet?"

"Sir Monterey Jack and Sir Zipper?" The kind bat corrected.

Upon the inquiring nod of Lawhinie, Dale narrated the sad tale of Monterey Jack, from the day he arrived to the inquisitorial palace with an aching heart torn between duty and conscience until the morning he departed in search of his true and only love, Desiree D'Allure.

At the mention of that name the evil witch's mouth fell open. "Who did you say?"

"Desiree D'Allure?" The bard said again, "Tall, slender female mouse with a thick french accent. Despite her charming looks, she turned out to be a cold-blooded pirate. Also, Sir Monterey's fiancée"

Lawhinie laughed. Not her usual wicked derisive chuckle, but an actual burst of laughter. "Hehe… hahaha… hahahaha!"

"Erm, did I say something funny?"

"Funny? Hilarious!" A wolfish smile crept up her face. "You see, I killed that nasty thief two nights ago!"

Everybody looked at her incredulously. "You what!?"

"Well, she gave me these scars!" Lawhinie pointed to her forehead and right cheek. "In return, I stabbed her in the heart with this" The remorseless witch produced a short, sharp dagger out from her left sleeve and fidgeted with it describing circles in the air. "Of course, before that I made her watch a tenfold of her companions burn to death!"

"That's horrible!" Foxglove exclaimed covering her mouth.

"Pfft! She had it coming for ruining my face! May she rot in hell for eternity!"

"But… Monterey Jack! If he hasn't found about this yet…"

Dale quickly pulled his girlfriend into a soothing hug to comfort her. "Oh, cutie, he is our friend! We have to let him know about this!"

As the bat hid her face on her beloved chipmunk's chest, Gadget pulled Lawhinie by the shoulder. "Sis, I think is better if we leave now" She advised quite distressed.

The evil twin, who was standing there gleefully enjoying the commotion she had provoked, addressed her sister with a cocky smile. "Oh, what's the rush? It's still raining out there, dear sister"

"Rain is starting to ease off" She countered. "And, and from a logistical point of view it would be more efficient if we depart to Les Innocents ahead of them. You won't want Chip to carry you all the way there if dawn finds us here, correct?"

"And w _hy Chip, anyway?_ " The cleric sneered with contempt.

Lawhinie took a glance at the cold and damp darkness beyond the door and frowned. "I loathe the idea of being carried anywhere while unconscious almost as much as I loathe to fly under the cold night rain. You have it easy, wearing our father's cloak!"

"In fact, I've something for you!" Gadget beamed clasping her paws together, then proceeded to sink one of them in the depths of the magical cloak. "It must be around here"

For everybody's surprise, she pulled a bent witch hat out, one Lawhinie recognized immediately. "My beloved hat!" She exclaimed as she reached and examined it from all sides. "I thought I had lost it forever!"

"Not at all, I kept it safe all this time" Gadget said proudly. "I know how much that feathered hat means to you, sister"

"Indeed!" The fiery witch grinned as she put it on again. "Bwa hahahah, now I feel like a real witch! One who could brave the wildest storms out there!"

"So that means…"

She offered a grateful smile, a strange sight for everybody outside her family. "Heh, sure. Let's move our party elsewhere. I know of some taverns that are at a stone throw away from our final destination"

Gadget eyed her hesitantly. "I-I think it's a bit late for a party" She said, well aware of how Lawhinie's parties used to end back at their manor; in a maelstrom of alcohol, profanities, property damage and morning weeping. The fact her twin sister's liver was still in good shape was a real mystery for her.

"Dinner is it, then. Wine and cheese, preferably" The evil witch walked towards the exit door and turned around to give their new companions one last disquieting grin. "This is exciting! I'm so looking forward to work with you guys. It'll be a blast! Until our next rendezvous!" She waved goodbye with a paw.

"French words aren't your thing, sis" Gadget observed as she followed her twin outside.

"Whatever, someday I'll make German the world language"

The good witch stopped for a second at the door and gave a last cautious look back at her companions. None of them noticed. Tammy and Dale were busy comforting the shaking Foxglove; Chip had fallen silent and brooding, lost in his own thoughts. To watch him like that hurt the witch the most. She finally stepped out, without as much as a weak goodbye whisper.

Tammy wrinkled her nose in contempt the moment she realized the Hackwrench sisters were gone for good. ""Ugh! Now I'm siding with a murderous witch. What would my mother say?"

"Probably nothing" Dale, who was right behind the squirrel, commented solemnly. "She married a pirate and… Ommph!" A well-placed elbow to the stomach made him think twice before finishing the sentence.

It was that pained growl that snapped Chip out of his thoughts. "Huh? Gadget…"

Outside, at the edge of a thick branch, the sisters were about to soar into the night. "Well, it's your broom, isn't it? You drive" The evil twin conceded handling over the sweeping instrument to her owner.

"We could buy another broom…" Gadget offered as she mounted astride on the levitating stick and put her hood on.

"Pfft! Yeah, 'buy'…" Lawhinie smirked mischievously. She mounted on the broomstick right behind her sister in a ladylike manner -namely, a side-saddle position: one paw gripping the handle and the other holding the feathered hat in place -. "Come on, let us go" She urged. "I'm thirsty!"

"Aye, aye!" The blonde witch bolted up to the skies, very much like an arrow would. Truth was, she couldn't wait to take her sister away from her friends down below. More importantly, away from Chip. After all, this wouldn't be the first time her twin would admit nefarious crimes in front of hard-earned friends; friends that would be gone forever the next day. And judging by the way Chip sulked after that shameless confession…

"Gadget, wait!" The dark-nosed chipmunk rushed out from the foliage, a second too late to catch up with his loved one. By then the witches were but silhouettes cut against the fleeting rainclouds. "Don't go"

The defeated ranger made his way back to the den. He stepped in and found that everyone was silently waiting for his orders.

"So, what do we do now, Chip?" The kind-hearted bat asked slowly. It pained the chipmunk how much her mood had fallen since nightfall, back when all she wanted was to fly free from one fruit tree to another.

"Now, we sleep" Chip said as he fell heavily on his sleep bag. "Take a good rest, you all. We leave for Les Innocents at dawn"

The birth of the new day found the witches sharing a meal in a smallfolk inn built beneath the ceiling beams of an abandoned house that overlooked the exterior walls of Les Innocents. This hostel was, first and foremost, a resting place for batkind, those who'd rather sleep perched upside down from the ceiling than cramped beneath the walls of the building. Even so, the inn had a few spare rooms for rodents and other land creatures. On top of that, the grape wine they sold was of top quality.

"Ahh, this is the stuff!" Lawhinie exclaimed with gusto as she tasted the last drops of her red wine and whammed the wooden cup against the table. The lone candle that shed some light on her features flickered in response. "Now, what's this!?" The evil witch addressed her sister. "You haven't as much as twiddled with your cup the whole time! Come on, today is the day we will get our souls back! Show more enthusiasm, girl!"

"How can you be so certain?" Gadget asked sitting on the opposite side of the table. "Mephisto…"

"Mephisto is coming to us like a good boy" The witch's expression grew dark. "You can feel it in your bones as well, don't you? He is growling mad at us right now, Paris and its hundred churches is a mortal trap and has no choice but to try and beat us in our new home field. Man, he really is desperate to open that portal to hell, doesn't he!

Gadget looked away clearly uncomfortable.

The drunk Lawhinie slammed her paw soundly on the table. "Bah, never mind! We and our companions will kill that liar tonight. Heck, If he wants to return to hell so badly, I'll send him back myself… in lumps of charred flesh, of course!" She raised a paw to face level and ignited it in fire.

Gadget, on the other side, straightened up quite alarmed at the reckless display of magic. She quickly turned around picturing the horde of scandalized patrons, but found they were quite alone at that early hour, their only company an old and sleepy bartender mouse that didn't gave the girls on the furthermost table of the place a second thought. If they had brought a second candle to waste, good for them, he thought.

With a mischievous grin the evil twin called off the flames and settled down on her chair. "So… you and the ranger chipmunk, huh?"

Her naïve twin jumped on the seat together with the brimming cup of wine. Upon landing again her usually pale cheeks had turned red with embarrassment. "I, Well, Chip and I… It's, it's complicated" She finally said with a sigh and a shake of head.

"How complicated can it be?" Lawhinie raised a brow as she reached for the bottle of wine and guzzled its reddish elixir down her throat. "You…" She paused to lick her lips. "you take his paw, invite him to a room and then…"

"Lawhinie!"

"Bwa hahah! Just look at your face! Oh, sister… You are killing my hopes to have nephews and nieces running all around the manor someday in the future"

"I thought you hated kids"

"People change, you know. Besides, I might have need of an heir later than sooner"

Gadget witnessed Lawhinie lose herself on thoughts out of a sudden. Her expression got wistful and distant and mournful, as if she had taken a wrong or difficult decision along the way and had regrets about it. The good sister had a slight idea of what could it be. "So… you and Sabrina, huh?"

Now it was the evil witch's turn to jump off her seat and land on it again. Her long tail tensed up like a wooden splinter, only to start whipping side to side wildly. Its owner suddenly rose up and loomed over her sister baring the fangs threateningly. "Who told you that?"

"I'm sorry!" She quickly apologized. "I was looking for you and I didn't want to look but I did"

The evil twin frowned confused. "What? Looking for me? When?"

"Two nights ago… right after you set on fire that neighborhood. I descended into the ruins of a doll store and then I saw…"

Lawhinie could barely believe that confession. "What did you see?" she asked narrowing her eyes again.

The blonde mouse looked away in shame. She couldn't help but to bit her lips before confessing. "I saw you, laying against the walls of the cavern all tattered and injured, and I saw a mist on top of you in the shape of a female mouse, and you called it 'Sabrina'. You let her take your clothes off and then… Uhh…"

Whatever animosity had boiled up inside the evil witch faded at the sight of her flustered sister nervously fidgeting with her fingers. "What… did you see?" She insisted as a naughty smirk slowly replaced her wolfish countenance.

"Oh, you know…"

"Sure as hell I don't"

"You, her! doing that"

"'That'? What's 'that'?" She sat again on her chair, struggling to keep a serious face. "Come on, be more specific!"

"T-the 's' word"

"Sss…inging? Sitting? Seeing? Oh, So many possibilities!"

"Sex!" Gadget finally burst out and even stood up. "You and Sabrina were having sex in front of me!"

"Hey, quiet you!" The bartender warned from afar.

While Gadget sat again and hid her face with the paws upon realizing what she had just done and said, Lawhinie had to cover her mouth to muffle the laughter. "Pfft! I made you say it! Hahahah!"

"Urgh…" The good twin put her hood on, all the way to the nose.

"Hey, hey!" Lawhinie offered her the bottle of wine, only to remember it was already empty. "Sorry if you find my naked body disturbing… even though we are identical twins"

"So that mist, that ghost, was really your maid Sabrina?" She asked shyly.

"Aye, the one and only"

Gadget took the hood off again, confused and shocked at the same time. "I didn't know you liked females"

"Now you do, dear sister"

"But, she is a poltergeist! How did you summon her all the way here?"

"It wasn't… it wasn't me who did it" Lawhinie sighed, then reached for the cup of wine on her sister's side. The evil witch emptied the cup in one single gulp, then went on to retell the events of that fated night, like how she arrived at Enzo Moretti's hideout in the doll store and asked him for a way to release poltergeists from the houses they were locked in, how the ritual which involved a magical mirror summoned Sabrina in front of her, only to discover the ghost had been Enzo's first love and victim many years ago. Finally, and without any ounce of regret, Lawhinie told her sister with great detail how she burned the necromancer down together with the whole damned house the moment he dared to hurt her beloved maid.

Gadget was left speechless.

"Anyway, it's getting late. Or early. Let's go to our room" Lawhinie babbled as she blew the candle out and tried to stand up, as sloshed as she was. "What number was it again?"

"Five…" Gadget watched attentively as her sister leaned heavily against the corridor's walls. She snapped out and quickly came to her aid. Still, there was one last question to ask. "Lawhinie, where is Sabrina now?"

"Hidden" The twin sister answered with tears running down her cheeks. "Well hidden". After that, she said no more.

On that day of September the weather improved vastly. Currents of wind cleared the skies well enough to allow the sun to bathe and cleanse the afflicted city of Paris with its ever-burning light. People and smallfolk alike welcomed this change as a sign that the nightmares and supernatural events would fade away just like rain did. Church bells all around the city chimed every hour, urging the faithful to gather and pray for the strange and otherworldly blaze to never strike again.

This day devoted to prayers had just reached the twilight hour when Chip and his friends finally walked past the gates of Les Innocents. Only then they realized how vague had Lawhinie described the largest graveyard of Paris. Behind its three-meter-high walls the heroes discovered a bizarre world that had almost nothing in common with the small and serene graveyard of their far away hometown. Sites for mass graves, where people were buried together in deep pits unceremoniously, gave the place a gloomy malevolent atmosphere. A few crypts, tombs and memorials could be seen at the distance, clustered together around a rectangular monument and a church, the group's final destination.

Tammy covered her mouth in disgust as the group passed by one of these foul-smelling pockets of dug soil. "Ewww!" She exclaimed. "I just saw some human fingers sticking out! You can't just leave a corpse like that, people will get sick!"

Foxglove, who had forced herself awake half an hour before, patted the squirrel's shoulder sympathetically. "Too much for the city of enlightenment, am I right? Suddenly I don't want to get married in Paris anymore"

"Me neither" With a heavy sigh, the cleric glanced ahead at the ranger. "Chipper, where do we go now? Night has fallen already"

"Almost there" The black-nosed chipmunk stopped and so did his friends. The cobble stoned path had brought them to the feet of the imposing fountain of the nymphs, a legendary landmark which Chip had heard of only in tales and a welcomed sight for the visitors of the over-saturated cemetery, despite being all dried up and neglected. "Wow! It's… magnificent" He whispered in awe and disbelief.

More than a fountain, it was a building two facades long and one facade wide. It had multiple water taps on the side facing the streets, each one ornamented with a lion head. A stairway led to the proper basin on the upper level, from where one could watch over the graveyard and the streets beyond the walls. The pillars that surrounded the basin and supported the ceiling were engraved with sculptures of sea creatures from the Greek pantheon: nymphs, tritons, sea dragons. In short, the fountain of the nymphs was a prime example of the marvels of the french renaissance.

"Just look at that!" Chip pointed up at one of the exquisite reliefs which depicted a woman of elongated body, narrow shoulders and translucent dress. "The detail on that nymph's dress is astonishing! I can almost picture it undulating in the wind"

Dale rolled his eyes, feeling a sting of resentment. After all, music and poetry were far superior arts than sculpture, but people just kept praising Paris's monuments wherever he went. "Hey Michael Angelo, stop dreaming and look ahead!" He acidly commented and pointed forwards. "The church's closed"

The party's attention got drawn to a bustling crowd of rodents of many species all gathered at the base of the main doors of the church of the innocents a few meters ahead. Females and cubs, entire families, were among them. Judging by their dirty and ragged clothes these people were looking for shelter. In front of them stood a pair of middle-aged mice priests dressed in humble robes, guarding a hole in the wooden door frame with their own bodies. Apparently, they were preventing the people from going inside.

"Please, dear brothers and sisters!" The most senior priest said as loud as his age allowed. "Don't antagonize them!"

"We won't allow a fight to start inside the Lord's home!" the other one quickly added.

"Nonsense, father Andreas!" One of the impoverished rodents argued. "You can't let these ruffians take the church for themselves! Can you see night has fallen already?"

"The spirits are awoken!" An old female mouse, perhaps older than the priests, made waves with her arms theatrically. "They are surrounding us! Let us in!"

And she was absolutely right. A few wandering souls, all of them invisible to mortal senses, had approached to find out what the commotion was about.

Chip and his friends arrived just as the aforementioned father Andreas threw his palms up in the air and pleaded for calm. "They are dangerous! One of them is even carrying a giant sword!"

"Just for tonight, find shelter somewhere else…" His comrade, father Eustachious, added in a tired tone. "Our almighty father will keep you safe tonight" He finished the sentence coughing.

Andreas looked over the crowd and gasped in surprise. "Oh, are you... looking for shelter too?" He asked to Chip and company.

It was then that the people got aware that another group of strangers were standing right behind them, dressed in traveling gear and carrying a few weapons. "And who might you be?" The old female asked a bit too suspiciously.

"We…"

"We are pilgrims!" Dale stole the attention of the crowd. "Coming all the way from Rouen to pay respects to the Lord in the holy church of the innocents!" Then he addressed Foxy and his two other companions raising his arms up in a grandiloquent posse. "Lo and behold, friends! Our long travel has come to an end! I present to you, the church of the innocents!"

"Wooow!" The bat joined the charade. "Its... magnificent!" She whispered in awe and disbelief, expertly mimicking Chip's gestures from before.

"Ugh, Normans. I can distinguish that damned accent from one mile away" A bulky rat commented with disdain, provoking a brief bout of chuckles among the smallfolk.

"Hey, some of them are armed!" A keen back mouse regarded the dual blades of the ranger and the longsword of the cleric.

"Better safe than sorry" The black-nosed chipmunk crossed his arms.

"Perhaps you could help us get rid of these crooks that locked us out of our own church?"

"No violence in the Lord's home!" father Andreas scolded again. "Understand, these people just want to mourn their dead in peace!"

"The dead are up and about in these fields, priest!" The old female mouse argued back. "A few nights ago I even saw a witch flying in the direction of the crypts! A witch!"

"Yes, yes! The witch!" The fat rat shouted as he embraced his wife and child. "She is the one who murdered those thieves in the Revenot family Crypt didn't she!? What will we do if she appears again tonight?"

A tense Tammy leaned towards Chip and whispered in a low voice. "Are they talking about Lawhinie?"

"Let's hope so" The ranger whispered back. "One evil witch around is plenty, if you ask me"

"We still have to enter into the church, though"

"Right! Let's just go and take the job they offer"

Chip was about to speak up and call for everybody's attention when a very familiar, very disliked voice spoke directly into his mind. "Ranger!"

"Oh, there you are" The chipmunk answered psychically. "You two have been awfully quiet today" He smirked. "But all good things come to an end, I guess"

"Chipmunk, cut that out and look up!"

"Huh?"

From the east, where darkness had claimed the land long ago, the Hackwrench sisters were approaching riding their brooms. "All I'm saying is, there was no need to steal that broom" Gadget insisted, throwing her sister an accusatory glance. "I had some gold nuggets left to spare. There was no need to steal the wine, either."

"Bah! Serves them right!" Lawhinie took a hearty sip. "Fuck that hostel and its overpriced rooms!"

"Don't be so vulgar! What would our parents say?"

"Nothing, Gadget! they are dead. Not even ghosts, simply dead. Fuck them too" The annoyed Lawhinie threw the empty bottle away. Still, she was considerate enough to aim for an empty lot down below.

The good twin's gaze fell downward. "Please don't say that" She said in a low sad voice. "You were their favorite child"

Gadget looked up again half-expecting another spiteful response, only to find the witch's breath was bursting in and out. "Hey, S-Sister?"

"Gadget, it smells… it smells of sulfur!"

The putrid odor reached the good witch's nose one second before a wave of heat. By mere instinct she glided away from the source, just in time to avoid being shredded to pieces by an air-cutting claw. "Golly!"

Mephisto, the devil, the dragon-cat, the soul-trader, had arrived to Les Innocents with fury and bloodlust.


End file.
